‘Pocahontas slur’ consultant loses discrimination case

Daily Telegraph Reporter

A PENSIONER has discovered he has 3,000 Italian relatives after finding out about his “lothario” great-grandfather.

Bob Brooker, 72, decided to look into his family’s past after his mother Doris died and left him a suitcase full of photographs and he wanted to create a family tree.

But after uploading the results of a DNA test to Ancestry.co.uk, he discovered a secret that had been kept for generations about his real lineage.

Mr Brooker found out his biological great-grandfather was not Royal Marine Thomas Woombell, whom his great-grandmother had been married to, but an Italian man called Antonio Tocci.

Mr Tocci lived opposite his great-grandmother Annie Woombell, nee Webster, in Tooting, south London, in 1891.

While her husband was overseas serving with the Royal Marines, Annie became one of apparently several local women who Mr Tocci was romantically involved with.

She fell pregnant to the Italian organgrinder, although Mr Brooker’s grandmother, Ellen, was never told the truth about who her real father was.

When he first uploaded his results to the site, he was contacted by Jack Torch, a grandson of Mr Tocci. Their DNA showed they were related, but at first they could not find a common ancestor.

Mr Brooker said his great-grandfather was “quite the lad” and fathered at least 13 children. It means Mr Brooker now has 3,136 living relatives who have all descended from the Italian.

Mr Tocci was such a character there is even a Facebook group for all his descendants, which Mr Brooker has used to contact some of his new family.

He now hopes to make a trip to Frosinone, the Italian city Mr Tocci was from, and meet up with a relative there in the near future.

The pensioner, who grew up in south London but retired to Lyme Regis, Dorset, said: “When my mum passed away she left me with a suitcase full of photographs. She was one of six children and so was my dad so I decided to do a family tree.

“All my life I had believed that I was descended from my great-granny Annie Webster and her husband Thomas Woombell, a working class couple from 19th century Tooting.”

He added: “I found an 1891 census which listed my great-granny as the householder and who I thought was my great-grandfather was in barracks during that census and Jack Torch’s grandfather, Antonio, lived in the house opposite.

“I was surprised to learn I am part-Italian but I was shocked to discover my extended Italian family runs to more than 3,000 relatives.”

A MANAGEMENT consultant said she was discriminated against after claiming that a colleague compared her to Pocahontas, a tribunal heard.

Shivali Patel told an employment judge in London that Ben Combes made the “uncomfortable” remark while talking about his wife during a Deloitte work drinks event.

Ms Patel said she felt there was a “sexual tone” to his comment which insinuated that her “similarities to his wife” and the “Disneyfied” character meant he found her attractive.

But, Mr Combes denied the allegation and told the tribunal that the conversation instead related to a discussion over the BBC show

and his wife’s family believing they are descendants of Pocahontas.

An employment judge has dismissed Ms Patel’s discrimination claims and suggested she had “unconsciously embroidered the discussion”.

Bob Brooker with a portrait of his great-grandfather, Antonio Tocci