RETURN TO HIS ROOTS BROUGHT DAVID TO TEARS
Ian Wylie
Manchester Evening News, UK
Oct 3 2006
EMOTIONAL JOURNEY: David DickinsonTEARS flow as antiques expert
and TV presenter David Dickinson embarks on a poignant and touching
personal journey.
"Most people will have their mother and father and will know their
roots and will never question them. In my case, there’s always been
a question," he explains.
Stockport-raised David’s voyage of discovery takes him from Manchester
to Istanbul via Jersey and provides Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC1,
October 4, 9pm) with one of the best editions in the current series.
He was born in 1941, the illegitimate son of an Armenian woman
called Eugenie Gulessarian, the result of an affair she had with a
married man.
In the moral climate of that time, his mother could not keep David.
He was adopted by Jim and Joyce Dickinson when he was just a few
months old, and brought up in Cheadle Heath.
"I always felt a little different," he recalls.
At the outset of his TV research, David adds, "I’m excited about the
thought of tracing my grandfather’s origins, because I think that’s
what I’m about. I think I’m really east meets west, in a way."
Now 65, David didn’t discover he was adopted until he was 11, finding
his birth and adoption certificates in his granny’s desk. That’s when
the questions began. "Where have I come from? What kind of people
were they? Why did they have me adopted?"
He was 28 when he traced his birth mother Eugenie – known as Jenny.
They exchanged letters for two decades. But when she died in 1989,
they had never met face to face.
Jenny met and married another man called Bert, some two years after
giving David up for adoption. They had a son called Ken and moved to
Jersey, deciding never to tell anyone about David’s birth.
Jersey
Whenever David offered to visit his mother, she refused. Having
landed in Jersey with the TV team, he says: "I could have got on a
plane at any time and come over here. I had all the confidence in the
world and I could have just walked up to the door, but I considered,
‘Why should I do that? Why should I enter this woman’s life and turn
it topsy-turvy and cause her grief?’
"She was scared, she was nervous. She said to me that her husband could
be rather difficult. The truth may be she just couldn’t face up to
meeting the child that you give away. And I think I respect that also."
If you look at the photo of Jenny as an older woman, you can
immediately understand her fears that others would realise David was
her son, long before he was a well-known TV face.
"She used to say to me, ‘People will put two and two together. People
will recognise you.’ She was, obviously, alarmed at that thought."
After the death of his natural mother, David made contact with his
half-brother Ken and his wife, Sue. They live in the same house in
Jersey where Jenny and her husband Bert lived for 40 years.
There are plenty of tears as the two brothers again discuss those lost
years and their mother. Recalling their very first meeting, Ken says,
"When you walked through the arrivals hall, I could feel the hairs
on the back of my neck standing on end because it was just like a
reincarnation of her.
"I thought, ‘Here I am. I’ve had the love of this wonderful woman all
throughout my childhood, and all you’ve got are these letters.’ Very
emotional."
More tears flow when David walks along the beach, reflecting on the
mother he never met. "She did what she thought was the best. Coming
over here and seeing Ken happy there with his wife in the house which
his mum, and dad, brought him up in … a bit tearful today, really."
Back in Manchester, David discovers more about his grandfather,
Hrant Gulessarian, a wealthy textiles merchant who came to the city
from Istanbul in 1904.
With Christian Armenians facing persecution in Turkey, Hrant became
part of a thriving Armenian community in Manchester.
After joining an uncle already set up here in business, he became a
millionaire in his twenties.
Blackpool hotel
But Hrant later lost most of his fortune, spending his last years
living alone in a Blackpool hotel room before his death in 1963.
Although, at the time he never knew his grandfather or his background,
David actually followed in his footsteps and believes he inherited
the family genes for toughness.
"I’m not really a Dickinson. I’m definitely a Gulessarian. Since I
was 11, I’ve been chasing the Gulessarian name. Perhaps I’ve been
trying to prove something."
He visits the Armenian church in Manchester and finds records of his
grandfather’s wedding, plus details of his mother’s birth. Hrant lived
the life of an English country gentleman with his wife Marie-Adelaide,
the daughter of a Moss Side baker, in Great Warford, Cheshire, just
20 minutes’ drive from David’s present-day home.
But their marriage did not last. Hrant’s business was failing and
the couple drifted apart. Divorce papers mention her frequent adultery.
David asks, "What can you say when your grandmother turns out to be
a bit of a tart?"
He visits the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry and uncovers
more about his grandfather’s 1920s city centre business.
There are a few last pieces of the jigsaw waiting for him as he
travels to Istanbul to find out what happened to the Turkish branch
of his family, including the discovery of a new-found relative.
His ancestral quest at an end, David is happy his questions have
finally been answered. "Now the circle is completed as far as I’m
concerned. It’s put to rest."
k/entertainment/filmandtv/s/224/224639_return_to_h is_roots_brought_david_to_tears.html