Brian, you really are a lucky son of a gun
Succession star pays tribute to his drunken war hero grandad and petty thief great-grandad for giving him the survival instinct
HOLLYWOOD actor Brian Cox has discovered his grandad was a World War I hero who fought on the Western Front and was gassed by the Germans. The Succession star, who grew up believing his mum’s dad James McCann was a drunken reprobate, was moved to tears when he learned the truth.
Cox, 76, who was taking part in PBS documentary series Finding Your Roots, said the discovery was both heartbreaking and relieving as it explained his grandad’s failure to cope with life after the war.
Cox, who was born and bred in Dundee, told show host Henry Louis Gates jnr, “James died long before I was born but I knew he had led a very troubled life and spent most of the time drunk.
“Growing up there was a giant photo of this guy with red hair in uniform on the wall and my mum would tell me it was my grandfather and that he was in the military and distinguished himself.
“The photo disappeared a long time ago but James has been nagging me ever since.
“For years I have been trying to find out more about him but I kept hitting dead ends, so finding out he was a war hero is incredibly moving. It validates his life.”
The US show’s genealogist Kimberly Morgan discovered that James was in the 9th Battalion of the Black Watch and served in the trenches at the height of the war.
She also learned his lungs were damaged permanently in a gas attack in 1915 and he went to a hospital in Yorkshire to recover.
James then continued to serve, training soldiers for the front. He was honourably discharged 10 days before the end of the war in 1918 and was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the Silver War Badge.
Cox, who now lives in New York, said: “Knowing that my grandfather went through so much and was gassed in the trenches is just awful.
“His pension documents show he had bronchitis, emphysema and was left with 30 per cent of his normal health.
“He spent the rest of life living with the harsh reality of what happened. He died young at just 50. Getting drunk must have been his way of coping. It doesn’t excuse the way he was but it makes sense.
“In a way his ghost has been cleansed. After the war, folk saw the bad, drunken parts without taking into account his time in the war and the hero he was.”
Cox, who will return to the screen when the new season of Succession goes out on HBO next month, added: “It’s incredibly emotional to think this man, whose life had been debased and reduced to
nothing, was a hero is really something. I wish my ma was alive to hear all this.”
Genealogists also discovered Cox’s great-great-grandfather Harriot Walker spent his life getting into trouble with the law. At 17 he appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court accused of mischief, breach of the public peace and assault. Harriot spent six months in Kirkcaldy jail at 21 for hitting a janitor with a poker and in 1851 was fined for poaching and stealing a trowel in Leslie, Fife. He died in Dunfermline poorhouse at 62 after stealing boots. Cox said: “I’ve been worrying about what James McCann had been getting up to so then hearing what Harriot was like is similar to a slap in the face with a wet cloth.” Cox admitted his own childhood was “pretty awful even though I didn’t feel it at the time. You just learned to cope with it”.
“My dad died when I was eight and my mum had a series of mental breakdowns which meant she had electric shock treatment and she became non-functional.
“I grew up with no parental guidance but during that time there was a survivalist mechanism kicking in and made me realise I was OK. It was hell but I was OK.”
He added: “My parents and James and Harriot would be pleased someone has got it right. I would not be anywhere without this heritage, as depressing and tragic as it is.
“I feel hugely best and respect just how lucky I am. I often say to myself, ‘Jesus Christ, Cox, you really are a lucky son of a gun.’”