Fiona fights back tears as she finds her family's lost hero

NEWSREADER Fiona Bruce was forced to fight back tears in front of the cameras when she learned her great-grandfather died in the First World War.

IT S HISTORY Fiona Bruce knew nothing of her great grandfather IT'S HISTORY: Fiona Bruce knew nothing of her great-grandfather

She shook with emotion when she uncovered a poignant letter written by the soldier’s commanding officer to his widow, Ms Bruce’s great grandmother.

“I really did feel like crying,” said the Antiques Roadshow presenter. “It never occurred to me that I would have a personal link to the Great War. Now I know what a tremendous toll the fighting took on my family.”

Of the heartbreaking letter that gently broke the news of her great-grandfather’s death, she said: “I had no idea it would be there. What I found incredibly moving was not only thinking about the impact it would have had on my great-grandmother, who was pregnant at the time and already had children, but also on this poor officer writing the letter.

“It was so beautifully written, so caring. It was clear he hardly knew my great grandfather; he’d only met him the day before. There he was, writing this letter in the heat of battle and to think how many he had written. It must have been one of dozens or hundreds.

“The decency that shines out of that letter is amazing. He was trying so hard to soften the blow. I found that very moving.”

Fiona, 44, the former presenter of Crimewatch, revealed she knew very little of her ancestry before agreeing to take part in the new series of BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? which begins next month.

She said her father John was the managing director of a multinational company who travelled the world. It meant that by the time she was 14 she had lived in Singapore, Milan, Merseyside and, finally, London, where she went to school before going to Oxford University.

She therefore had little sense of her roots and many elements of her family history were a mystery to her. “It was just us,” she said of her upbringing.

While making the show she learned about a family scandal and visited a Scottish fishing village where the Bruce family had lived for generations.

“I knew almost nothing about them,” she said, “I knew my mother Rosemary was adopted and my father John came from a small Scottish fishing family and that was it. The one thing I was sure about was that there wouldn’t be any money!”

Fiona, who is married to businessman Nigel Sharrocks and has two children, said her work ethic stems from her father.

“I was brought up with the idea that you are what you make of yourself,” she said.

“It’s only one generation on that my family is comfortable… money was a struggle.

“I’ve reflected on how I’m living now. The contrast is enormous and rather humbling. If I think I work hard now, then I don’t know I’ve been born.”

Also appearing in the new series will be actress Zoe Wanamaker, impressionist Rory Bremner, celebrity chef Rick Stein and actor Kevin Whately.

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