https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/jodie-whittaker-makes-uncomfortable-discovery-22830839?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=MirrorNews17&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter&ccid=2369561Jodie Whittaker makes 'uncomfortable' discovery about family history in dark twist
The Doctor Who star makes an alarming realisation on Who Do You Think You Are? and discovers another romantic family story is actually a lie
ByKyle O'SullivanTV Features Writer
20:00, 12 OCT 2020
Jodie Whittaker was nervous that her family history might be boring but it was the complete opposite. The Doctor Who star had limited knowledge of her immediate ancestry, and what soon becomes clear is that what she does know has been twisted. Having grown up just outside Huddersfield in the village of Skelmanthorpe, Jodie wants to find out the truth behind a romantic family story behind her paternal grandmother's name. However, it's on her mother's side of the family that she makes an alarming discovery on tonight's brand new Who Do You Think You Are?. The actress is horrified to discover that her own mother was shunned by parts of the community due to an old grudge that originated 100 years ago. Jodie already knows that, controversially, her great-grandfather and his brothers kept the family's mine open during the 1921 strike but their story gets even worse. Her great-grandfather, Edwin Auckland, was the youngest of six brothers and six sisters with the boys becoming incredibly wealthy through their mine. But it turns out they grew wealthy by opening their colliery during the 1921 miner's strike. They carried on regardless without thought for the struggling local community and needed police to guard the gate and walk them to safety. "It's not an ideal bit of your family history, so it would be nice to find out it's not as bad as you think," says Jodie, unaware that what's to come is even darker.
Jodie's mother, Yvonne, explains that the Aucklands became the "enemy" to almost everyone in the local area - living in big houses and privately educating their children. Yvonne reveals that she discovered the bad blood when kids at school said they weren't allowed to talk to her, meaning the deep grudge was still going 20 years on. "Essentially they were scabs," admits Jodie.
"Living here during the 80s, the idea that you work through a strike goes against everything you're brought up to believe in."
The Thirteenth Doctor is determined to find out how the Auckland brother's dad, her great-great grandfather rose up through society. He started working in the mines when he was just eight-years-old, despite it being illegal at the time, then continued working in the pit digging coal until he was over 60. Her great-great grandpa, Edwin Snr, then elevated himself by becoming a contractor and employing people to work down the mines, including his six sons. They started to make a lot of money during the National Coal Strike of 1921 by continuing to work but it came at a cost. In the aftermath of the First World War, where coal production had been at an all time high and seen as vital British victory, the price of coal slumped. When colliery owners slashed miners wages by a third, most of the country's 1.2 million miners refused the huge pay cut and went on strike. Mine owners locked them out of the collieries and coal production came to a virtual standstill, but a few small mines like the one owned by Jodie's ancestors stayed open. Jodie is horrified to discover from old newspaper clipping that families were begging for food for their starving children. She wants to know if history repeated itself in the General Strike of 1926 and gets an upsetting answer. With 3 million worker on strike across a range of industries, the Auckland brothers once again had 70 men working under police protection. "That's not ideal for me. Having the collieries open during the 1921 strike is one thing, but it happening again feels really unpleasant," admits Jodie.
There was a huge hike in their profits as they sold coal at nearly three times the usual amount, benefiting from the misfortune of those on strike. Stunned Jodie admits this is most distressing as they had the benefit of hindsight the second time round. "You opened a pit and there are people begging and terrified for their families. But with that hindsight the Auckland brothers doing it again," she says.
"For the family it had huge benfits. That is probably why Auckland means a different thing to different people."
When her great-grandfather died, he left an estate valued at £31,367, which in today's money is a staggering £1.5 million. Jodie is astonished to discover that the six brothers combined were worth a colossal £7 million. She says: "Oh my god. I was aware the Auckland brothers were comfortable but didn't realise it was much more than comfort. That is a massive surprise to me."
Jodie feels conflicted over her family history, feeling pride and shame at the same time. "There's a way of looking at this with pride. A man bettered himself and his entire family and they took on that work ethic of grafting and took it to another level," explains the actress.
"It looked after generations of that family. That is a huge success from an eight-year-old miner. The problem is when it comes at a cost. On your doorstep there must have been enough families you saw who sacrificed so much just to try and have their basic rights. I knew that part of my history was there. I feel uncomfortable because I don't want to sound like I'm being rude to people in my family but I think it's where you lean emotionally."
On the other side of her family tree, Jodie discovers that the romantic story she’s been told about how her beloved paternal grandmother isn't true. Her nan, Greta, was given the middle name of "Verdun", believing this was a tribute to her older brother who died at the famous battle. The truth Jodie uncovers about Greta’s eldest half-brother’s forgotten sacrifice is even more poignant than the family myth. Her great-grandmother, Eliza, gave birth to a son, Walter, before going on to have eight more children with Jodie's great-grandfather, George. As a child, Walter was left in Lincolnshire when Eliza and George moved to East Finchley in London. "It's just that idea of a little kid being left. That's slightly heartbreaking. I wonder if she saw him again," asks Jodie.
Walter started volunteering for the Red Cross at age of 21, working at a military hospital near Southampton as an orderly at the start of the First World War. "It's so heartbreaking to think this 21-year-old starting the first major adventure of his life it's his last and he's not going to make it to 30," says Jodie.
Walter's job was to get men off and clean the trains coming back from the trenches, which were full of mud, blood and injured soldiers. The following year, at the end of 1915, he enlisted to go to France to serve with a cavalry regiment. Jodie says: "He will have seen death on a daily basis. I don't think seeing that you have the naivety to think you're ok. So in a way he's probably doing it knowing he won't come back. Bricking it but doing it, that's a hero to me."
While looking back with a historian they discover an issue, the Battle of Verdun was fought by the French army against Germans and not the British. Jodie discovers that it was fashionable at time to name children after battles and it's almost certain her great-uncle was nowhere near that fight meaning there is no truth to the story behind her gran's middle name. However, Walter really was a hero as he returned from the war with a minor injury, then went back out to fight, but received another injury that would cost his life. Jodie discovers from Walter's death certificate that he died aged 24 from a shell wound in April 1918, agonisingly close to the end of the war. "It’s so frustrating because he got through so much in the war and it was nearly over. It’s really sad," says Jodie.
Walter was brought back to Salford, but buried near his mother Eliza's home in an East Finchley cemetery, giving Jodie some hope they got to see each other before he died. The only time they were physically this close from him being a toddler is in death and its really sad," says the Doctor Who star.
"It feels unfair that's how it had to play out. There's no doubt in my mind Eliza and George and those children stood around this."
