Innholdsfortegnelse for Special 2016 i Who Do You Think You Are?

Summer is here and with it the smell of freshly mown grass, strawberries and cream in the garden, another Wimbledon win for Andy Murray (hurrah) and, of course, the unveiling of the new series of Who Do You Think You Are?. We can’t wait for it to start – there are some great stories to look forward to. Read about the glittering line-up of stars who will be travelling back in time this year on page 17. And if that’s got you enthused about revisiting your own tree, we reveal 15 things you might not know about the FamilySearch website that will give your research some oomph. I’ve had a play around with a couple of them and solved a puzzle on my own family tree! We also look at…

Looking for the death of Minnie bit.ly/29hXVNp Frank Ross was born in the Canterbury area in 1884 and was one of 11 children. In 1910 he married Minnie Rosina Weidmeir by licence at St Marylebone Register Office. By 1911 they were both living back in the Canterbury area. I have been unable to find children from this marriage. In 1946 Frank had a second marriage stating that he was a widower, but I cannot find a death record for Minnie prior to this, making me wonder whether he divorced or was committing bigamy. laughing granny John Bird bit.ly/29hXkLA I know that this is a long shot, but you never know! John Bird married Ann Head on 14 November 1802 at All Saints, Edmonton, Middlesex. According to the baptisms of two…

764,000 records have been added to findmy past.co.uk’s PoW collection – now complete, with material spanning 1715-1945 656 historic newspaper titles are now searchable online at britishnewspaper archive.co.uk 21 – the number of times that the annual Yorkshire Family History Fair has now been held. The most recent event took place at York Racecourse on 2 July 113 – the age of Gladys Hooper, Britain’s oldest person, when she passed away on 15 June. She appears on the 1911 census as a schoolgirl in Deptford, London 2 million people have now taken a DNA test with AncestryDNA, making it the world’s largest consumer genetics database…

An historic collection of prison registers and mugshots from Gloucestershire has been released digitally for the first time. Added to ancestry.co.uk in June, the searchable record set provides details about individuals put behind bars between 1728 and 1914. Indexed by name, age, date and location of crime, the registers contain details of inmates held at several different gaols across the county, with many of the records from 1870 onwards also accompanied by photographs. Among the felons to be snapped was seven-year-old Edgar Kilminster, who was arrested, along with his brother, for stealing sweetmeats. As a punishment, Edgar – who was only 3ft 10in tall – was sentenced to seven days’ hard labour and given “12 strokes with the birch”. The 235,000 records in the collection have been digitised from original…

‘A royal or aristocratic lady had been up to no good! But who was she?’ There is a fascinating article that I’ve been reading by the medieval historian Ian Mortimer, discussing recent findings about the DNA of Richard III. Of course it was DNA that confirmed, via the female line descendants of Richard’s sister, Anne, that the bones found in the Leicester car park were those of the king. But analysis of the male line DNA threw up a very intriguing complication. Comparison of Richard’s DNA with that of the Beaufort family showed they did not have the same male ancestry, although both were ostensibly descended in an unbroken male line from Edward III. In other words, at some point in the Yorkist or the Beaufort dynasties the official father…

‘Change to the old system of record keeping was unpopular, resulting in the loss of books’ If, thanks to a combination of careful research and luck, you have traced a family line back to the late-1600s, then your next step may bring you up against ‘The Commonwealth Gap’ – a frustrating period before 1660 and the Restoration of Charles II. The English Civil Wars (1642-46; 1648-49; 1649-51) were fought between Royalists and Parliamentarians, causing widespread turmoil and finally being won by the Parliamentarians. During the following period – termed the Commonwealth – Parliament under Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, made many changes, including to religious practices. Among these was an Act passed on 24 August 1653 ordering that, from 29 September 1653, marriages should only be conducted by Justices of…

‘The most remarkable document discovered was a journal of John’s time working the coasts of North America’ Who can resist a loveable rogue? There are some people who may be bad with other people’s money, unfaithful in love, neglectful of their friends and family, and so focused on their own career they verge on the self-obsessive, and yet they are always forgiven. And – if we admit it – they retain a powerful charisma that goes against our better judgement. One such man jumps out of WDYTYA? Magazine’s reader Robert Gilchrist’s research. “I suppose I’ve been doing family history for more than 35 years now,” says Robert Gilchrist. “I started with my own and my wife’s family, and then, as my children grew up and became parents themselves, I began…

PAUL BLAKE co-wrote Discover Your Roots and is a fellow of the Society of Genealogists (SoG). AUDREY COLLINS is records specialist in the Advice and Records Knowledge department at The National Archives. JANET DEMPSEY is a records specialist at The National Archives, concentrating on maritime and transport records. SHARON GRANT is the Chair of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). JUDITH MOORE is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). STEPHEN THOMAS is a genealogist with more than 20 years of experience and appears regularly on TV as an expert. PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert and the author of Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors. HELEN WHITTLE is a member of AGRA and the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG).…

‘The first steam engine was built in 1658, giving rise to the Industrial Revolution’ Engineering has its roots in ancient society. Think about the wheel, pulley or lever – all basic mechanical principles, but all devices that were invented by humans and refined over time. Imhotep, the earliest known civil engineer, designed and built the Pyramids between 2630 and 2611 BC. In the centuries that followed, gradually more sophisticated civil, mechanical, electrical and military engineering projects were undertaken throughout the world. The first windmill was built in 650 AD, the printing press in 1440 and knitting machine in 1589. The renowned engineer William Gilbert was the originator of the term ‘electricity’ in 1600, while Michael Faraday and others are attributed with the invention and development of the electric motor. Thomas…

NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES These are great for filling in otherwise unknown personal details and adding flesh to the bones of ancestors who can not be found elsewhere. Visit britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk or findmypast.co.uk for more. GALE DATABASES These contain valuable information dating back to the 17th century. They can be accessed through public libraries or viewed online at gale.cengage.co.uk. GOOGLE BOOKS Cheryl found a wealth of information about her ancestor, Sir Berney Brograve, and Norfolk history in general, in books and periodicals that are available for free via Google Books. Visit books.google.co.uk to search.…

Access to important genealogical collections has been vastly improved Shropshire is a county with a contradiction: it was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and yet it remains a largely rural, unspoilt county. Abraham Darby smelted iron ore using coking coal in the village of Coalbrookdale in 1709. As this fuel contained fewer impurities than normal coal, it resulted in better-quality iron. Although this is just part of the story of what would become known as the Industrial Revolution, it was nevertheless a key event in Britain’s iron production. And two generations later, in 1779, another Abraham Darby was at work in Shropshire, building the world’s first cast-iron bridge – a 30-metre structure designed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, which still spans the River Severn. We last visited Shropshire five…

Shropshire Archives Castle Gates, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY1 2AQ 0345 6789096 archives@shropshire.gov.uk shropshirearchives.org.uk The archives service for the county of Shropshire, which includes the Borough of Telford and Wrekin, looks after registers of baptism, marriage and burial for most of the 300+ Shropshire parishes, plus some nonconformist and Roman Catholic registers (most of which are now searchable via Findmypast). It also looks after census returns, cemetery records, Poor Law material, maps, photographs, records of the Quarter Sessions and other local courts, electoral registers/poll books, school material and records of businesses, hospitals and other local organisations. The online catalogue is at search.shropshirehistory.org.uk. Shropshire’s Heritage Heroes  heritageheroes.org.uk Join the army of ’virtual volunteers’ working to improve access to Shropshire’s heritage collections. Tasks include researching, fact checking and enhancing the catalogue descriptions, transcriptions and indexes.…

Why doesn’t the code that’s printed in the magazine work correctly? Each bonus content code applies only to the issue of the magazine in which it’s printed. Make sure that you’ve clicked on the red ‘View content’ button next to the cover of the correct issue. Why isn’t the code box appearing? If nothing happens when you click the red ‘View content’ button, it’s possible that firewall or virus-checking software is stopping the website from running JavaScript. You can check to see if this is the case by temporarily halting these programs and then reloading the website. Why is the data only available for a period of six months? Due to the terms and conditions agreed with some of the firms that provide the bonus content for our magazine, we…

Members of the public are being asked to share their knowledge of England’s 400,000 listed buildings and monuments. The crowdsourcing initiative, dubbed ‘Enrich the List’, has been launched by Historic England, which looks after the listing process. Established in 1882, the system helps to protect sites of historic importance from destruction, ranging from palaces to pigsties. To contribute, users need to navigate to historicengland.org.uk/listing/ the-list, where the entire list can be searched for free. Once a relevant entry has been found, people can upload their own stories, memories and photographs at the bottom of the page. Although posts will be vetted to prevent spam, it is up to users to make sure their submissions are factually accurate.…

A collection of Kent memorial inscriptions has been made available to explore on the web. Transcribed and uploaded by volunteers from Kent Archaeological Society (KAS), the records provide details of heraldic ledger stones found on graves in Canterbury Cathedral, Rochester Cathedral and historic parish churches across the county. Typically erected by middle-class families, the stones were designed to record a wealth of information about the deceased, including details of their children, spouse and occupation. The practice peaked in the 18th century and eventually ceased in the 1850s when burials within churches – except those in existing family vaults – were banned. As many old ledger stones have been damaged beyond recognition, KAS volunteers were reliant upon records kept by the Reverend Bryan Faussett (1720-1776) and Nicholas Eyare Toke (1866-1960), who…

Have you got your breath back after Wimbledon and the Olympics? It’s time for something altogether more relaxing – a gentle trip back in time, as we explore the nooks and crannies of the family histories of 10 more lucky celebrities. Yes, Who Do You Think You Are? is back on our screens soon with more fascinating forays into the past. Join us as we look ahead to series 13 of the nation’s favourite genealogy show. It’s a real star-studded line-up this year, with top names from all walks of celebrity life delving into an intriguing and eclectic mix of family histories. Heading for the archives and donning the familiar white gloves will be actors Sir Ian McKellen, Ricky Tomlinson and Warwick Davis; Casualty’s Sunetra Sarker and EastEnders’ Danny Dyer;…

1 Go to Discovery Begin your search on The National Archives (TNA) home page: (nationalarchives.gov.uk) go to ‘Search 1,000 years of records Discovery – our catalogue’. 2 Search the records In the search box, type “civil register” remembering to use double quotes and click the ‘Search’ button. 3 Narrow the results This produces several hundred possibilities, many not relevant. To reduce the number, scroll down the ‘Date’ panel on the left, tick the box for ‘1600-1699’, then click the ‘Refine’ button. This leaves just 33 records.…

On 20 May 1515, Henry VIII signed a charter formalising the Fellowship of Cinque Ports pilots of Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney and Sandwich. In reality, this Fellowship had been in existence for a long time previous to this, possibly even before the Norman Conquest. There were two classes of pilot, the ‘Upper Book’ pilots were more experienced and they piloted vessels over 60 tons. The ‘Lower Book’ pilots were less experienced and worked at smaller ports and with smaller vessels. The Cinque Ports pilots were all required to be master mariners with at least seven years’ experience, who were then required to be examined, taking soundings along the English Coastline and from Amsterdam to Calais. Once he passed this examination he was issued a licence to pilot. Pilots were all…

Q I have been searching for my 3x great grandfather’s marriage for over 25 years without success. His name was Edward Froud/Frowd/Froude. Edward died aged 71 and was buried on 5 December 1827 at St John’s, Egham, so this makes his birth about 1756. The only birth I have found in 1756 is for an Edward, son of Thomas and Mary Froud of South Stoneham, Hampshire. I can find no connection with Egham, Surrey. His wife’s name was Martha. She died aged 68 and was buried on 21 March 1836, also at St John’s, Egham. They had eight children all born in Egham, and baptised at St John between 1793 and 1810. According to other researchers, Edward was a blacksmith, but I have not been able to verify this. I…

This month’s brick walls COTTRILL/New Zealand My great grandfather, Robert Tyson (pictured right) followed in his father Joseph’s footsteps and enlisted in the 54th Regiment. He sailed aboard the infamous Sarah Sands in 1857 for Bengal. Apart from a home visit when his mother Mary Ann died in 1866 and his marriage in the following year to Eliza Fotheringham, he spent the next 10 years serving in Ireland and India, where six of their 12 children were born. Three children died of dysentry while the family was in India. In 1877, Robert was discharged to pension and the family settled in St Helen’s, Lancashire, where the remaining six children were born, one of them being my grandfather Robert George. I have recently been given one of my great grandfather’s medals…

“Tithes were a local tax, usually a tenth of a landholding’s produce, payable to the Church since the Middle Ages. Enclosure Acts of the 17th and 18th centuries converted the payments in some parishes from produce to money, and in 1836, the Tithe Act extended this to all of England and Wales. “The Act generated a vast quantity of records detailing who owned and occupied much of the land in England and Wales in the form of record books and parish maps. These records are found in county archives and The National Archives. They used to be difficult to search, but recently thegenealogist.co.uk completed the first stage of its project to digitise the maps and record books (available through its diamond subscription). Details of the counties covered and what you…

Date and period of engagement This shows only adult service and Jack’s 12 years would have started on his 18th birthday. He died aged 16. Ships served on This lists all of the ships and shore establishments. Shore establishments are usually followed by Roman numerals, so HMS Chester was Jack’s first ship. Description The record gives a physical description of the seaman. In this case, the height and chest measurement clearly show Jack to be a juvenile. Reason for discharge The reason for discharge is given in this column. In this case, ‘DD’ means ‘Discharged Dead’. Remarks At the top of this column you can see that Jack was awarded the VC for “a conspicuous act of bravery in the action off Jutland”.…

1 Getting started Navigate to whodoyouthinkyouar e magazine.com/britain-r emembers. Here you can explore the map and view ‘pins’ that have already been added by other users. Zoom in and out using the slider on the left-hand side. 2 Add name and location To create your pin, click on the ‘+’ button in the top right-hand corner. A box will appear in which you can enter the project’s name and address. You can manually choose where your pin should go by clicking ‘Map Select a Location’. 3 Select a marker category Choose the category that best suits your project by selecting ‘Archive’, ‘Group’, ‘Independent’, ‘Event’ or ‘Past Event’ from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the box. This also assigns a colour to your pin. 4 Describe your project Click on…

Names and date of inquest The standard opening paragraph of the document gives the date of the inquest, name of the coroner and of the deceased. In this case the inquest took place at Saint Thomas’ parish in Southwark, Surrey on the 21 December. Names of jury The names of the jury are recorded here, and you can also see their signatures at the bottom of the page. Circumstances of death This section details the circumstances leading to the death, or the circumstances in which the body was found if no-one was present when the person died. On 19 December 1836, Catherine was trampled by a coach and four horses as she walked along the Lower Deptford Road, Deptford. She was left with “divers mortal wounds, bruises and fractures” and…

Excursion agents were private individuals working with the railway companies, with a tremendous impact on mass mobility. While most railway histories of Britain focus on Thomas Cook, other agents were operating at the same time, forging their business with a much larger working-class market. Liverpool-based excursion agent Henry Marcus was known as the ‘father of cheap trips’, from the mid 1840s. He contracted with the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and his excursion traffic was immense. Between 1846 and 1850 it was reported that he had carried over 100,000 people on his trips, advertising excursions from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Dublin, Liverpool and Manchester, Bangor and Conway, Chester and Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Carlisle, Penrith, Windermere, Kendal, Lancaster, Preston and Huddersfield. By the end of 1851 he had carried 200,000…

Robert Maitland Brereton was one of three engineers from the same family. He trained under Isambard Kingdom Brunel from 1852 to 1856 while his second cousin, Robert Pearson Brereton, was Brunel’s chief assistant. Robert was a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers and travelled the world throughout his career. After being privately educated, Robert went to the Royal School of Mines in London. He held an impressive pedigree, initially being employed by Brunel on the building of SS Great Eastern , the new Paddington Station, Saltash Bridge and the Devon & Cornwall Railway. Between 1856 and 1870, Brereton also worked under the great engineers Robert Stephenson, James J Berkley and Robert W Graham on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, and was himself made Chief Engineer of the Bombay, Nagpore…

Your ancestors went to bed on Saturday 2 September 1752 and woke up on Thursday 14 September. The year had lost 11 days. Some were appalled that days had been written off by the government, as if their lives had been shortened. Most just got on with the new system of dates, while some simply refused to accept the change and went on with the old dates. Until 1752, your ancestors lived with a calendar that had been imposed on the Roman Empire by Julius Caesar, called the Julian Calendar. This has been modified by Christianity, adding feast days that were important to the Church. They chose to start the year with 25 March, Lady Day, which was devoted to the Virgin Mary. Some people reckoned the days of the…

1086 Walter de Lacy, who had arrived in the country with William the Conqueror, begins work on Ludlow Castle. 1200 Marcher Lord Fulk III FitzWarin becomes an outlaw, rebelling against King John over his right to hold Whittington Castle, Shropshire. 1708 Abraham Darby leases a furnace in Coalbrookdale. He sets to work producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal, producing superior-quality iron. 1781 The world’s first cast-iron bridge, built by Abraham Darby’s namesake grandson, across the River Severn, is opened on New Year’s Day. 1793 Thomas Telford is put in charge of the construction of Ellesmere Canal – designed to link Wrexham and Chester – including the spectacular Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. 1809 Pioneering evolutionary biologist Charles Robert Darwin is baptised in St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury.…

OUR PICK Lanarkshire Local and Family History Show 2016 3 September MOTHERWELL CONCERT HALL  lfhsshow.weebly.com secretary-lanarkshirefhs@hotmail.co.uk Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Scotland’s largest family history fair once again promises to be one of the highlights of the genealogy calendar. Featured speakers for the 2016 event include Marie Dougan, who will offer top tips on how to explore your family tree using social media; and Andrew Nicholl, an expert on Catholic ancestry. Professional researchers from the Scottish Genealogy Network will also be on hand to answer any questions for anyone who has hit a brick wall. Nathan Morton LONDON Introduction to Family History Sources in Asian and African Studies 22 August BRITISH LIBRARY  fibis.org/events hrs-training@bl.uk A free 75-minute session aimed at genealogists delving into the rich Asian and African sources at the…

Cornwall OPC Try looking for Cornish kin in parish records at cornwall-opc-database.org/ search-database. This is a volunteer project offering transcriptions of records for all parishes in Cornwall covered by Phillimore and can be searched free of charge 1 Navigate to the homepage at the address above to begin your search. In the ‘Sections’ box on the left-hand side, you are given options to search for your ancestor, including ‘Marriages’, ‘Burials’, Banns’, ‘Search Database’, ‘Person Search’ and so on. Make your selection. 2 On the next page, enter all known details for your search. For example, in this case we are looking for the marriage of Samuel Ashton to an Elizabeth sometime during the 1840s or 50s. Enter those details and press ‘Search’. 3 All relevant hits will appear at the bottom…

In the 1930s when my mother was in her late teens or early 20s she once shocked some of her more conservative older relatives by arriving for a visit on the back of a tandem wearing shorts! Reading your magazine, I have now learnt that she was in fact following in her ancestor’s footsteps, as one of her mother’s first cousins was Tessie Reynolds, who wore knickerbockers to ride from Brighton to London and back in 1893. This was obviously so shocking that the first I knew of it was reading about it on page 25 of the August edition of WDYTYA? Magazine. It had not been passed down, although my great grandfather obviously kept in touch with his younger sister, as I have a photo taken of him in…

RED ROSE BRIGADE HOAXES WOMEN AT SOUTHEND During the past few days a hoax is said to have been played upon a large number of young lady visitors to Southend-on-Sea. They have received letters purporting to come from a French count staying at Southend, asking for the favour of an interview, the writer stating in each case that he had been particularly struck with the good looks of the lady, and that he desired her further acquaintance with a view to marriage. The place of the meeting usually suggested was the entrance of the pier at a given hour in the morning, the distinguishing mark of both parties to be a red rose. Many of the recipients kept the appointment, only to find waiting others similarly adorned with roses, and…

FamilySearch has been around in one form or another since 1894. It is the world’s largest genealogical organisation, with the world’s largest genealogical collection and a physical presence through 4,700 family history centres in more than 120 countries. It is the family history arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), whose members have a religious duty to seek out their ancestors. Every month, more than three million people use records, resources and services from FamilySearch. It’s likely you are one of these, but have you explored everything Familysearch has to offer? 1 Search more than five billion records for free The well-known FamilySearch.org website started in 1999. No subscription has ever been necessary – it is free to all. Today, it is a wonderful repository…

Q According to the 1881 and 1891 censuses, William Jennings was born c1860 in Devonport, Devonshire. He married Sarah Smithson on 22 October 1877 at Holy Trinity Church, Hulme, Manchester, and his father was given as Patrick Jennings (deceased) Soldier, Sergeant in 41st Regiment. In 1881, they are living at 4 Primrose Hill, Salford. William is aged 21, a warehouseman, and Sarah, his wife, is a braid tenter. They have a daughter, Lily, aged one. In 1891 they are living at separate addresses. Sarah is living at 1 Wilson Court, Salford, with children, Nellie aged six and John aged two. William is a boarder at 4 West Wellington Street, Salford, at the house of Thomas and Miranda Shaw who are related by William’s marriage with Sarah. By the 1901 census…

CIVIL REGISTRATION Comedian and novelist Julian Clary knew little about his family history prior to his WDYTYA? journey, so he explored both sides of his ancestry. Julian and his mother, Brenda, both believed that the artistic gene came from his maternal side. Brenda also joked about finding foreigners in her family tree. When Julian started researching, he found an artist and a foreigner too! Julian traced back to his great grandmother, Theresa Walter, by ordering the relevant civil registration certificates, including for Theresa’s marriage. She married in 1881 and Julian was delighted to discover that she gave her occupation as ‘artist’, thus confirming one family hunch. Julian decided to look more into the life of Theresa and found her on census returns. He located her on the 1881 census and…

‘Over 200 volumes from welfare organisations in Liverpool were also deposited in the record office’ Overcrowding, combined with economic strife, meant thousands of boys and girls in Victorian Britain were sent to live in charitable homes. But the intensity of the problem soon gave rise to child migration schemes, in which youngsters were shipped overseas to live and work – mainly to Canada – a controversial practice that continued for many decades. While it can be difficult to piece together the migrants’ lives, files at Liverpool Record Office could help family historians, as Helena Smart explains. Which document have you chosen? I have chosen an emigration file from the Nugent Care Collection, a Catholic Charitable Organisation in Liverpool. The archive provides valuable information about British child migrants who were sent…

The Building History website has a guide to the most useful tax sources that can help researching property (building history.org/taxation. shtml). It touches on the Domesday survey, Parliamentary surveys, the hearth and window taxes, tithe apportionments, land tax and valuation records. For the wider history of taxes, Wikipedia comes in handy (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_taxation_in_the_ United_Kingdom). As always, it’s worth following the sources. The page on the 1795 Hair Powder Tax quotes from A History of Taxation and Taxes, which describes how in 1812 a total of 46,684 people paid this tax, but by 1855 only 997 still did – and almost all of these were servants. Lots of tax material can be found via subscription websites, although what is available depends on what agreements are in place with which county repositories. So Findmypast has Northamptonshire…

A crown official, the position of coroner dates from the 12th century. While the role has evolved over time, a core part of their work has always been to investigate the cause of sudden or suspicious deaths and deaths in gaols and other institutions. Each county had several coroners operating within its boundaries, originally elected by local freeholders and from 1888 by county councils. Each was allocated an area or district within the county, while some towns and boroughs had the right to appoint their own. Once the coroner had been notified of a death, their first job was to call a jury. This was made up of members of the public – a minimum of 11 were required up to 1926 and seven after this date. It was their…

‘Men were said to have encountered his ghost riding across Brograve Level’ How long have you been researching your family history? After my grandfather, Vivian Edward Long, died in New Zealand in 1966, my father Trevor brought home a mysterious wooden box. To an 11-year-old it appeared to be full of treasure – Victorian-era trinkets that Granddad had inherited from his aunt, Alice Long of Bath. Most intriguing was a newspaper clipping about the 1924 funeral of a Viscount Long (the cutting revealed he was 1st Viscount of Wraxall, Walter Long, a former cabinet minister, Lord of the Admiralty). There was also a large gold and turquoise ring. It was engraved with the words “Mary Brograve August 25th 1869”. Whose sausage-sized finger did it once adorn? Who exactly was Viscount…

‘Despite doubts from some in the military, by the end of the war there were 50,000 such soldiers’ By 1914, British men flocked to recruitment offices, enlisting to fight in the war against Germany. However, there was a hardy core of would-be soldiers who were denied the chance to join up. The reason for this was their height. When hostilities began, the minimum height for a soldier in the British Army was 5ft 3in. Thousands of men were turned away from recruiting centres, despite having the fitness and the will to fight. It evoked feelings of frustration and outrage. Barbara Tilbury’s great grandfather, James Cockburn, was among them. “James was born in 1877 in Dunfermline and became a miner,” Barbara explains. “At the age of 15 he was working as…