WDYTYA - David Walliams

[LizzieW]

What I wondered was the plight of his wife, she had 3 children and if he had been killed she would have had a War Widows Pension and sympathy. As it was she was married but with no husband ( she died before him, I checked ).

Did he receive a Disability Pension? If so was a large portion of it paid directly to his wife?

How did she manage when she couldn't remarry even if she wanted, she was left in limbo.

What did she tell people when Shell Shock was basically not talked about.

Yes, they did seem to pass over that part of the story and concentrated on the man himself.  I guess she went to work and perhaps her family would have had to help out too until the children were old enough to go to work.  They would have left school at 14 in those days.  They didn't mention whether or not his wife ever visited him whilst he was in the asylum.  Relatives did, my mum remembers going to visit her uncle with her mum (his sister) in the 1920s when she was only about 11/12.  She said she was frightened at what she'd see but it turned out he was seemed quite normal and working as a gardener in the asylum grounds (he had been a butcher).

[guest189040]

Another depressing episode, it was and still is tragic the way successive Governments have treated the Armed forces personnel who suffer both physically and mentally.

So sad that DW’s GF suffered the way he did for as long as he did, It makes you wonder if he and his family would not have been better off if he had not survived the action.  Having worked in our mental health and seeing guys who were little more than walking vegetables you cannot help but wonder why they have to suffer so.

My own Grandfather was shot during WW1 but being in the Canadian Army he was treated so much better than those injured UK forces personnel.  His health was severely damaged as a result of the injury and he died young in 1932 but the Canadian Government had looked after him and he is buried in War Graves section of the Cemetery and Grandma received a much superior War Widows Pension then that received by UK War Widows.

[candleflame]

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[ms_canuck]

Living across the pond, I honestly had no clue who he was until it showed him at the start of the show.  I don't watch reality TV (one exception being the UK Voice), so a big swerve to any "XX Got talent" for me LOL.

He came across as genuinely engaged in the history, and both stories were interesting to me as history is my fave topic, more even than the genealogy/ancestry.

Looking forward to the next episodes.

Cheers all - from a once again locked down Toronto (well, kind of Tier 2 thing actualy)

Ms_C

[Phil Goater]

Wow, there were some tough and resilient women in David's background and it's a shame we only learn about them in passing. Accepting that there were extreme circumstances to cope with in WW1 on the battle front, I still couldn't help wondering if his ancestor had a predisposition to reacting in the way he did, and if there was any evidence further up the tree. The episode certainly brought home the horror of war and the difficulties of the less well heeled which I think is to be welcomed. I thought David handled the difficult revelations with dignity.

Phil

[Mabel Bagshawe]

I enjoyed it and I liked David Walliams attitude to the findings too. 

I'm afraid I didn't watch last week although I had recorded it when I read that Jodie Whittaker's mother was still calling her ancestors "scabs" for keeping their workers employed during the General Strike and I assumed that this had rubbed off onto Jodie Whittaker  I don't understand why people are so incensed about what their ancestors did 100 years ago.  Surely they should be proud that their ancestors started with nothing and worked their way up the ladder, ending up almost as rich as a left "luvvie".

The scars of industrial disputes run deep in some places - if you;d seen the programme you would have heard how her mother was abused/ostracised at school because of the actions of her family in disputes several decades previously. Jodie was a child in the miners strike. They reflect what they experience

I was talking to someone recently and we discovered we had roots in the same village where there was a very long dispute before WWI. He mentioned how his family had moved away for a while because of they were locked out during strike and had to find work. I knew I had to tred carefully as my family had been on "the other side"

[LizzieW]

I accept what you're saying, I just can't understand why people can't let go of things that happened decades or more ago.  Life's too short to bear grudges for so long.

[ThrelfallYorky]

As always, one wonders about the bits left out - no doubt for very good reasons, but I found myself wondering where the wife of the shell-shocked man was later, even if she might have figured in the 1939 register? - but as I couldn't remember the name, couldn't try to chase it up.

[jaywit]

I looked on 1939 and she was on with the son born 1915 with her, she was down as married and not working.