New Doctor Who Peter Capaldi may decide to forget saving the world and use the Tardis to investigate a fascinating episode from his family’s past contained in The Courier’s archives.
Researchers at the British Newspaper Archive have discovered Capaldi’s grandfather’s life almost ended in tragedy when he shot himself in the chest in an act of passion.
The researchers were digging into his family past ahead of Capaldi’s first appearance as the Doctor on Saturday night on BBC One.
They uncovered that Capaldi’s grandfather, 27-year-old Giovanni Batista Capaldi, then working as an ice cream merchant, had married 16-year-old Agnes Dougan on February 20 1913.
And they made a startling discovery about Giovanni and his relationship with Agnes in a report from the Courier on the January 27 1913 (PDF link), just over three weeks before their wedding.
With the headline ‘Lover is rejected by landlady’s daughter and shoots himself with revolver’, the report details the series of events that unfolded while Giovanni was living in the household of a Mrs Dougan.
The newspaper article states that ‘the attractions of the landlady’s daughter seemed to have set aflame the heart of the Italian’.
Unfortunately, Giovanni Capaldi’s interest in Mrs Dougan’s daughter was not well received, leading to the near tragic shooting incident.
For more on this story, and a special Magazine feature on the new Doctor Who, see Saturday’s Courier.
(Archive report courtesy of The British Newspaper Archive)