Lest we forget

9:19am Monday 10th November 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

November 11 marks 90 years since the bloody battles of the First World War were brought to an end with the signing of the Armistice.

A new BBC documentary series follows eight celebrities as they investigate the roles their ancestors played during the conflict.

EAMONN HOLMES

TV presenter Eamonn Holmes wanted to find out what it was like for his Irish grandfather fighting for the British Army at a pivotal moment in Irish history.

“I don’t know where he went, where he saw action, or if he killed anyone. You’d like to think he acquitted himself well,” Eamonn says as he sets off. “But I don’t know anything because he didn’t talk about his war time experiences when he got home. They were very much a closed book.”

When war was declared Jack Fitzsimmons was 27, unmarried, and from a Belfast Catholic family. Not everyone in Ireland wanted to get involved in the First World War, which was perceived by some as a British war.

But many thousands of men from all over Ireland had joined up – including Jack’s brother Hugh. When Hugh was killed in action, Jack joined the Irish Guards to avenge his death.

Eamonn travels to France to visit the battlefields where his grandfather fought and to reflect on the role played by Irishmen from both the north and south of Ireland.

It is his first visit and it makes an immediate impression.

“Vast prairies of farmland around here and then there are these signs – ‘Front line’ or ‘Canadian graveyard’, ‘New Zealand graveyard’, ‘South African graveyard’, all these people from various parts of the empire coming to take part in this conflict. I feel quite ignorant not knowing as much about it as I should do.”

He also finds that there are thousands of Irish graves, including his uncle Hugh’s.

Through military records and war diaries Eamonn discovers how and where his grandfather was very seriously wounded. His injuries were so bad that he was sent back to Belfast where he never fully recovered from his wounds.

But returning home himself, Eamonn also discovers that his grandfather did not receive a hero’s welcome. While he had been away, there had been an armed uprising in Dublin and coming back to Ireland in a British Army uniform didn’t go down well with everybody.

ROLF HARRIS

"I DIDN’T really think I would be so moved because it all happened 90-odd years ago.

But it has been incredibly emotional, this journey, and I’m glad I made it,” says artist and entertainer Rolf Harris.

Some presenters in the series knew nothing about their family stories. Some were three generations away from the war and never had the opportunity to meet their great grandparents. But Rolf’s First World War ancestor was his father, Lance Corporal Cromwell Harris.

He had joined up with his younger brother and served in the Australian Army. But the brothers were not Australian. In 1914 they both emigrated to Australia from Wales. By 1916 they were back in Europe – this time in uniform.

“I’ve never been to the Western Front, never seen any of the areas where they fought,” says Rolf.

He brings a family heirloom with him – his father’s First World War helmet. It has a large jagged hole in it. And his dad was wearing it when it happened.

In the small town of Villers Bretonneux, in France, Rolf visits a school built with funds raised by the families of Australian soldiers who died there. The school now stands as a unique living memorial to the Anzac war effort.

Rolf is visibly moved to find such a tribute. “I had no expectation of this degree of love for Australia in this little part of the world, knowing nothing of the losses that the Anzacs suffered and the debt of gratitude that people here felt to Australians.”

PHIL TUFFNELL

BEFORE filming for My Family At War, England cricketer and television presenter Phil Tuffnell knew next to nothing about what his grandfather did in the First World War.

Service records show William Tufnell was a silversmith from Finsbury, London, when he enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in January 1916. His skills as a metal worker were in demand and he was sent to France as a mechanic with 46 Squadron.

During his mission to find out what life was like for his grandfather and his squadron, fighting in planes over the fields of the Western Front, Phil heads to Yorkshire where enthusiasts are building a Sopwith Camel biplane from original blueprints.

‘The Spitfire of its day’ ran on bicycle wheels and the wings and body were made from timber wrapped in Irish linen.

Phil finds out that the planes were difficult to fly and is shocked to be told that the pilots were not given parachutes and that about 8,000 pilots died while training in the UK. In combat, it was equally hazardous.

By 1917, the life expectancy of a new pilot was measured in days.

At the beginning of the war, many Generals were scornful of these ‘new-fangled flying machines’. But Phil discovers how they became one of the most important weapons of the war.

He gingerly accepts an invitation to fly in a First World War bi-plane, but isn’t filled with confidence when the pilot tells him “don’t be alarmed if the engine stops, it often happens”.

The experience leaves Phil in awe of the First World War pilots and full of pride in his grandfather William, and the role he played when war broke out.

■ You can read a full version of this feature, written by James Hayes, series producer of My Family at War, in the November issue of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine, on sale now for £4.25. The issue also includes a free book, Trace Your First World War Ancestors.

■ My Family At War is on BBC1 every night until November 11.

■ Ancestry.co.uk will be allowing free access to its First World War records for the month of November.

■ TOMORROW: The most tragic year of the Great War