Host Andrew Martin meets genealogist Helen Brooks for this second episode of Series Nine. Andrew hears how Helen's family history research got started by a button, the importance of writing everything down when your aunt tells stories, and her love of photographs. 

THE LIFE STORY - GERTRUDE LESTER / SISTER HELENE DU ST. SACRAMENT  Helen's choice of life story is her Great Aunt Gertrude Lester who later became a Catholic nun known as Sister Helene du St. Sacrament within the order Les Filles de la Sagesse.

Helen uncovered a story of a woman’s rise through her order and her work in Nyasaland (modern-day Malawi), right through to a tragic accident at Croydon Aerodrome on 25th January 1947 which would see Sister Helene make the ultimate sacrifice in a moment of bravery that saved a man’s life.

With the aerodrome demolished and the site covered in housing, residents in the 1970s are reported as having seen the nuns had return in a ghostly form…

THE BRICK WALL - GEORGE WRIGHT
Following directly on from her choice of Life Story, Helen has been researching the other people in the plane crash. She's managed to find information on all of them apart from the most significant one (to her) - the man that Sister Helene saved!

He's known as George Wright, and in January 1947 he had been de-mobbed from wartime service. She doesn't know his age but assumes that he's in his 20's, but she does know from newspaper reports that he was catching a later flight to Johannesburg, South Africa to find work.

Despite her searches, Helen does not know what became of him after the day of the crash.

• What happened to George Wright after 25th January 1947?
• Where did he go?

If you think that you can help Helen with a research idea or clue, then you can find her on Bluesky, or alternatively you can send us a message and we'll pass it along to her.

In the meantime, Andrew and Sándor's offer of help results in a dangerous and tricky manoeuvre...

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Episode credits:

• Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
• Helen Brooks - Guest
• John Spike - Sándor Petőfi

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