The Chain Reaction

Albert Edward Vickery was born beneath the Rock of Gibraltar in 1873. Forty-six years later he and his wife Alice died suddenly near the Khyber Pass, leaving five children and a family mystery.

Between those two points lay an extraordinary working life: the Royal Garrison Artillery, the Boxer Rebellion in China, years of technical artillery service in India, and family life in the military communities of Agra and Peshawar.

This first episode follows the chain backwards and forwards - from Gibraltar's military world, through Peking in 1900, into the British Raj and finally to the events of September 1919.

It is not a story of generals or kings. It is about ordinary people caught inside enormous events - and how one sudden break in a family can keep shaping descendants more than a century later.