EastEnders actor and documentary presenter Ross Kemp was born on 21 July 1964 in Essex.
At the start of his episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, he says he’s particularly interested in finding out about his great grandfather ‘Pop’: “The big story was always that he was shipwrecked at least twice during his career as a merchant seaman, and I’d like to find out if that’s true.”
Ross goes to visit his parents. His mother Jean reminisces about Pop, her grandfather. He was a sailor, nicknamed after Popeye. Jean remembers that during the Second World War, he disappeared and was thought to have been killed, but then he came home again. She remembers opening the door to find him wearing American military uniform.
‘Pop’’s real name was Arthur Chalmers. He was the youngest of the eleven children of John and Olive Chalmers, who ran the Ship & Castle pub in Portsmouth.
Ross goes to the pub, where he meets genealogist Maggie Lewis. She tells him that John Chalmers was a bargeman and pub landlord, with long family roots in Hampshire.
Old newspaper articles paint an alarming picture of Albert Chalmers, John’s son and Pop’s brother. After being discharged from the Navy, he was repeatedly arrested for crimes including threatening to cut off his mother’s head with a knife and smashing the windows of his father’s house. One article also describes him as a ‘blacklister’. Ross wants to find out what that is.
He meets historian David Beckingham, who tells him that ‘blacklisters’ were habitual drunkards who were ‘blacklisted’ from visiting local pubs.
Albert’s life continued to go from bad to worst. He was sentenced to three years at an ‘inebriate reformatory’, which was little better than a prison, and then admitted to a mental hospital.
Ross says he’s sad for how Albert ended up: “There was a life there, and he wasn’t remembered by anybody, even by his own brother… It was definitely not handed down to my mum and it certainly wasn’t handed down to me.”
Albert was never mentioned in Ross’ family stories, so how far can the family stories be relied on? Is it true that Pop was shipwrecked twice?
To find out more, he goes to Southampton, to meet historian Harry Bennett. He says that Pop first appears on Merchant Navy crew lists in 1913. In 1914, at the start of the First World War, he volunteered for more hazardous service. He became a quartermaster on the Kildonan Castle, a liner that played a crucial role in the war, transporting arms to South Africa and serving as a hospital ship. On such voyages, he would have been at high risk of being torpedoed by an enemy U-boat. There’s no firm proof, but he might have been shipwrecked.
“It sounds like I want him to be shipwrecked!” Ross says. “I don’t, it’s just that that was one of the stories that was banded about.”
An old photograph shows Pop on what appears to be a cruise liner. Ross meets cultural historian Anne Massey. She tells him that after the First World War, Pop worked on the Atlantis, one of the most popular cruise liners of the time. In the 1920s and 1930s, cruise liners were at their height of glamour and luxury – quite a contrast from serving in the war.
Anne shows Ross a map of all the countries Pop visited. Ross is very impressed: “56! I think I’ve done 52.”
Next, Ross wants to find out about his father’s side of the family. Going back through the records, he finds out that his 4x great grandfather, Jeremiah Whall, is recorded dying at Greenwich Hospital in 1858. Is there another naval connection?
At Greenwich Hospital, Ross meets historian Catherine Beck. She says that at the time, Greenwich Hospital was the Royal Navy pension hospital. To be admitted, you had to have served in the Navy for at least 12 years.
Jeremiah’s records show that he joined the Royal Marines aged just 13 in 1803. His role is given as ‘drummer’. Drummers had an important role as they drummed particular patterns in order to send messages. In 1809, he took part in the campaign to capture Martinique during the Napoleonic Wars. As a drummer, he would have been on deck in the thick of the fighting and would have been a target for the enemy, since killing him would cause a breakdown in communication.
“I think one thing I’m finding out, with Jeremiah and with Pop, is that they were probably men that didn’t like to sit still for too long, and I never have,” Ross says. “They saw a bit of the world. Maybe I get a bit of that from them.”
Anne Massey tells Ross that she’s found Pop on a 1943 passenger list called ‘List of Survivors Ex The ‘Duchess of York’. It also says his port of embarkation was Casablanca in Morocco.
Ross heads to Casablanca, where he meets historian Sarah-Louise Miller. She explains that in 1943, the Duchess of York was a troop ship, travelling in a convoy. The ship was bombed by the Luftwaffe. The sailors would have had to evacuate the ship and carry out a perilous voyage to Casablanca, the nearest port under Allied control. They were met by American soldiers, which explains why Ross’ mother remembers Pop wearing an American uniform.
“There are similarities that I’m drawing from understanding him,” Ross says. “I’m finding out, basically through my great grandfather, a bit about me. He was shipwrecked. It’s fact.”
