Who Do You Think You Are? - Bear Grylls

 

TV personality, and head UK Scout, Bear Grylls' episode of Who Do You Think You Are? aired last Thursday. 

The episode started by looking at his grandfather's work with the military, which during World War 2 saw him become an expert in tanks.

After the war, his grandfather remained in the Army, ending up in a joint American-British taskforce known as T-Force.

This was something of a murky group, ethically, being formed primarily to obtain German scientific, technological, and sometimes commercial, assets. These assets included experts who were often given little choice about working with the Allies, and also those sometimes forcefully recruited by British and American businesses.

It's a tricky thing to consider from a modern perspective, especially when there were clearly ethical questions raised at the time, and Bear Grylls did quite well to navigate the thorniness of it.

As the episode moved on, he seemed quite surprised at how posh his mother's family turned out to be.

It was quite surprising just how surprised he was, to be honest: I think that if your grandfather was the son of the headteacher at Harrow - one of Britain's poshest private schools - you're going to be at least a little bit posh, Bear.

It was this Harrow headteacher who also provided a link with the Scouts, having been involved with them in the early days - something which Grylls had no inkling of prior to making this programme.

The family on his maternal line proved to be even more auspicious in prior generations, with Bear Grylls discovering ancestors amongst the nobility and clans of Scotland.

This was a truly impressive lineage, leading back to Robert the Bruce himself.

But, more importantly for Bear Grylls, apparently, was the justification of him wearing kilts. He really likes kilts.

...Which is one benefit of researching your family history which I had not previously considered, but to each their own, I guess.

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