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Comedian Paul Merton is known for his role as a team captain on Have I Got News for You<\/em>. He was born in Parsons Green, London on 9 July 1957 and is 66 years old. <\/p> At the start of his episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em><\/a>, he visits his sister. The two realise that at least one family story \u2013 that their maternal grandmother, hearing her husband had died, went into premature labour and died in childbirth \u2013 isn\u2019t true. She outlived an infant son, but it seems all three died<\/a> within a few days of each other.<\/p> \u201cPerhaps [the trauma is] one of the reasons why my mother didn\u2019t want to tell us about this stuff,\u201d says Paul.<\/p> To learn more, Paul heads to the village of Passage East in County Waterford, Ireland<\/a>, where his grandfather, James Power, was born in 1889. The son of an agricultural labourer<\/a>, James was found guilty<\/a> of \u201criotous behaviour\u201d in 1911. His prospects wouldn\u2019t have looked good. During the First World War<\/a>, James enlisted, but his military record suggests indiscipline.<\/p> Then, in 1916, he found himself on the streets of Dublin fighting not Germans, but Irish republicans during the Easter Rising. His regiment, the Royal Irish, were later sent abroad and James fought at the battle of Jerusalem in December 1917.<\/p> Records show James returned his military medals<\/a>, probably because he joined the IRA, in the 1920s the military wing of Irish republicanism.<\/p> In 1922, Ireland became independent, but there were few employment opportunities. James left a young family to join the Merchant Navy<\/a> as a fireman and trimmer, a tough job stoking furnaces. In 1926, he travelled to South America aboard the steamer Sheaf Lance<\/em>. Arriving back in Wales<\/a>, he disembarked. There, his maritime records end. That\u2019s because he died, aged 37, probably of a heart attack, in April 1927, his body discovered in the Glamorganshire Canal.<\/p> Paul visits his unmarked grave. \u201cI\u2019m the first member of the family to find out his final resting place,\u201d he says, and resolves to \u201cinstall a headstone\u201d.<\/p>