![]() He was selected as an All-Pro defensive end in 1996. He was a part of the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos in 19. Williams was selected by the Bengals in the first round (18th pick overall) of the 1991 NFL Draft. Then in 2010, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was included on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot. He ended his career with the Colorado Buffaloes with 263 tackles and 35 sacks. ![]() Williams was also the Captain of the 1990 Colorado National Championship Team. He was a unanimous All-American pick in 1990, a consensus All-American in 1989 and the 1990 Butkus Award winner. His wife Julia continued the business after he died and an obituary from the World’s Fair newspaper even includes a photograph of her.Williams played linebacker at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Graham shows David an obituary for William that describes him as a successful showman. Meeting with historian Jodie Matthews at the site where his family were based in Manley’s Yard, Battersea, David discovers that they would have owned and operated rides and shooting galleries.įinally, David heads to Maidenhead to see rides similar to the ones owned by his family and to meet fairground historian Graham Downie. Following him through the censuses David discovers that by 1911 William was listed as a Travelling Showman. However, William’s fortunes were set to change. More details are revealed in a newspaper article that reports William and his wife Julia were charged under the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act for making their children dance and sing while he played the barrel organ. Travelling to Salisbury, David meets historian Julie Anderson at the General Infirmary, where she reveals that David’s great great grandfather lost his sight during a cataract operation in 1884.īy the 1891 census, William is in Portsmouth with his family, recorded as a musician. Looking at the marriage certificate for his great grandfather Alfred Walter Haines, he can see that his father William Haines is recorded as blind. Next David turns to his maternal side of the family. “I'm glad they're still in the family and hopefully they'll stay in the family forever".Ī watercolour painted by David Walliams' great grandfather John George Boorman Vivien Williams "I'm glad he had the paintings, and I'm glad I've got them,” David says. Unfortunately further records show that John’s mental health declined further and he ended up spending the rest of his life at Cane Hill Asylum It was here that he painted the watercolours that now belong to David. Here he discovers some of the horrors that John would have experienced.Īfter appearing in a casualty list for September 1917 John next appears in the records of Napsbury Military Hospital in August 1918.ĭavid travels to the site of the hospital in Hertfordshire where he meets historian Fiona Reid, who shares with him the records that show John had suffered from shellshock after the battle of Festubert. Travelling to Belgium, David meets battlefield historian Lucy Betteridge-Dyson at Sanctuary Wood, where there are some preserved British trenches. John returned to England in June 1915 but was back in France in August 1916 in time to experience both the Battle of the Somme and Passchendaele. So you're a labourer one day and then six months later you're trying to kill someone in a muddy hole John’s first major engagement was the Battle of Festubert, a real baptism of fire: "So you're a labourer one day and then six months later you're trying to kill someone in a muddy hole perhaps, with your bayonet, with your fist, strangling them, whatever. That John, a labourer, was tall for the time may account for how he ended up with such a prestigious regiment, but it did not keep him from seeing some of the bloodiest action of the war. His wife Harriet was pregnant with their third child at the time.ĭavid heads off to the Guards Museum at Wellington Barracks in London to meet military historian Jeremy Banning and learn more about John’s time with the Grenadier Guards. John volunteered at the start of the war and joined the prestigious Grenadier Guards. David Walliams' grandmother Violet Haines (bottom right) with her parents and brother Kathleen WilliamsĮnquiring about the watercolours, David’s mum tells him that the shell-shocked artist was actually Ivy’s father, John George Boorman.
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