Amanda Holden: Bordeaux Roots and the Lancastria | Who Do You Think You Are? UK | S13 E2

Two revelations rewrite Amanda Holden’s past. First, a Cornish shoemaker who vanished from the record reappears in Bordeaux with a choice that changed everything. Then, a wartime disaster bigger than Titanic touches her own family in a way she never knew. Tracing a rumored French line, Amanda follows Colin Thomas from a harsh apprenticeship to Wellington’s Peninsular army and into a village near Bordeaux, where a forbidden romance, a surprising prenup, and a vineyard called Castoret reveal a legacy hidden in plain sight. Back in Britain, her search turns to her paternal grandfather, psychiatric nurse Frank Holden, whose decorated medical career collides with the secret-shrouded sinking of the Lancastria off Saint-Nazaire. Why did Colin reverse his name in France? What did Frank endure in those oil-dark waters—and why did the world hear so little about it at the time? Discover the moments that bind shoes to wine, duty to love, and survival to silence. Watch to the end for the connections Amanda never expected to find. #AmandaHolden #WhoDoYouThinkYouAre #Lancastria #Bordeaux #FamilyHistory #Genealogy #PeninsularWar