How Al Murray is related to David Cameron | 'It's not news' protests the comic

How Al Murray is related to David Cameron

'It's not news' protests the comic

Al Murray is related to David Cameron, newly released family records have revealed.

The comedian is a distant cousin of the prime minister, sharing a link via 19th century novelist William Thackeray.

Mr Cameron’s great great great great grandfather was John Talbot Shakespear, a senior bureaucrat with the East India Company.

Mr Shakespear was the uncle of Vanity Fair author Thackeray – who is Murray’s great great great grandfather.

They are therefore first cousins, five times removed.

The link was uncovered among 2.5 million files which have gone online via the http://www.findmypast.co.uk/ website. The India Office records cover Europeans living in India from 1698 to 1947.

Murray himself was sceptical about the news, tweeting this morning: ‘I am at the centre of a #notnews nexus. My mum says "don't know how we are related to PM other than via Adam & Eve.”

‘Though I am glad to be doing unpaid PR for that genealogy website, believe me,’ he added, sarcastically.

Published: 29 Jan 2014

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