Last Thursday's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featured comedian and presenter Paddy McGuinness.
At the beginning of this episode, Paddy knew extremely little about his family, being unsure of (or, in some cases, simply not knowing,) his grandparents' names - and, it seems, his uncle was also unaware of the names of his grandparents.
What seems even odder is there doesn't appear to be any specific reason behind the family not being talked about in subsequent generations - simply a quiet forgetting among the hardships of daily life.
As well as learning that his maternal grandfather was part of the vital workforce that constructed aircraft - including the spitfire - for World War Two, Paddy also followed the story of his paternal grandfather, who fought in the Boer War in South Africa.
William McGuinness, it seems, was far from the ideal soldier. As well as a lengthy prison sentence, with hard labour (which, under modern standards, would probably be considered torture,) for insubordination, William's military records describe his character as 'Bad.'
In my experience, that's quite impressive. No-one in the British army is 'Bad.'
The character assessments of the British armed forces rarely, if ever, call someone 'Bad,' in plain English. They prefer to be much more circumspect about the whole thing.
The main positive assessments are 'Excellent' and 'Very Good' (and sometimes there's more than one 'Very' stuck in, just for luck.)
The negative reports are 'Good' (yes, 'Good' is bad,) and 'Fair' (which also sounds like it should be good, but like 'Good' is bad - I know, it's confusing.)
To actually have Bad on a record suggests that William was a consistent thorn in the sides of his superior officers - which may, from a modern perspective, not actually have been a bad thing at all, given the questionable conduct and rigid classism of many British army officers at the turn of the 20th Century.
On the other hand, William may have committed crimes at every barracks and billet he ended up in - which would be bad, regardless of whether you're Edwardian or not. Or he may have been relatively poorly behaved and a thorn in the sides of the higher-ups. Without more information, we simply can't know for sure.
Other highlights from this episode were the (eventual) Ireland link and Paddy McGuinness' genuine attitude throughout.
It's clear that McGuinness is more than comfortable in front of a camera, and that makes the whole episode flow with more ease than it might otherwise have done, and gives the historical details and stories the presentation they deserve.
All in all, a 'Very Good' episode!
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