Fearne told her relative did jail time as objector

FEARNE Cotton has discovered her greatgrandad was jailed for being a conscientious objector during the First World War.

The TV presenter, 35, learned about coal miner Evan Meredith on the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?

He was in the pits at Abertillery, South Wales, from 13 and was arrested in 1914. He spent six months in Wormwood Scrubs, London, and was classed as a category B conscientious objector, opposing the war on political grounds rather than religious. Historian Aled Eirug tells her some objectors saw the war as a capitalist conflict and nothing to do with the working classes – a view not uncommon in South Wales mining communities. Fearne says: “I admire Evan’s courage and his strong-willed ways, and that he stuck to his moral reasons as to why he didn’t want to go to war.” Who Do You Think You Are? is on BBC1 tonight. Fearne’s episode airs later this month. SURPRISE Fearne Cotton