MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace discovered the truth behind family secrets when he appeared on Who Do You Think You Are? <\/p>
Gregg Wallace was born on 17 October 1964 in Peckham, South London. He started working as a warehouseman at Covent Garden Fruit and Veg Market at the age of 15, before starting a successful greengrocer\u2019s business and then becoming a presenter of TV programmes including MasterChef<\/em>. At the start of his episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em><\/a>, he describes himself as a \u201cgrafter\u201d. He\u2019s therefore not too impressed by stories of his great grandfather, Henry Springett, said to have abandoned his wife and children. However, as Gregg researches his family tree, an altogether different narrative emerges.<\/p>\n It\u2019s on a visit to his mother, Mary, that Gregg hears stories of Henry, who served as a\u00a0stoker in the Navy<\/a>. He also sees an old photograph<\/a> of his 2x great grandmother, a woman whose name he doesn\u2019t even know. \u201cI think she looks like me,\u201d says Gregg. \u201cIf you take the hair off, look, she\u2019s got my nose and mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n Gregg first checks Henry\u2019s naval records, which reveal his great grandfather\u00a0wasn\u2019t a deserter from the military as family legend suggests. He\u2019s also delighted to learn that Henry was a greengrocer<\/a> before he went to sea. In Devonport Naval Base, Gregg discovers more. Henry served during the First World War<\/a>, including time on a Q-ship, a military vessel disguised as a defenceless merchant ship in order to lure U-boats into making surface attacks.<\/p>\n He also learns that his grandfather, Wilfred, had two siblings, Vera and Harold. However, their dates of birth show they can\u2019t have been Henry\u2019s children because they were\u00a0conceived at a time when he was abroad. Henry\u2019s wife, Emily, had an affair. Gregg learns more about Emily\u2019s life too. Not only did she lose a first daughter, who died in horrific circumstances from burns caused by a paraffin lamp, but Harold died young. Suddenly, it\u2019s difficult to think so badly of Emily. Her story gets more tragic as Gregg travels to north Devon to find out more about Emily\u2019s mother, now identified as Selina Leythorn. She was a member of a Methodist denomination<\/a>, the Bible Christians, and a glove-maker. Initially, Gregg\u2019s research suggests a relatively successful life, yet\u00a0Selina died in a lunatic asylum<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meeting medical historian Professor Bill Forsythe, Wallace learns that Selina was twice incarcerated, telling her doctors she was damned to hell. The first time she was incarcerated, Selina was\u00a0discharged from hospital after three years. Could it be the photograph handed down the family was taken at this time? The picture certainly has similarities to other photographs of ex-patients from the era.<\/p>\n His great grandmother\u2019s apparent insecurity, Gregg now realises, may be related to her mother being committed when Emily was a teenager.<\/p>\n