JK Rowling weeps as she discovers the emotional past of her war hero ancestor on Who Do You Think You Are?

By Liz Thomas

Last updated at 3:39 PM on 4th August 2011

This was the moment Harry Potter author JK Rowling broke down in tears as she discovered one of her ancestors was a hero who helped protect others from German forces during the First World War.

The star learned that her great-grandfather Louis Valont, who worked for years as a wine waiter, was thrust into the trauma of war after just 15 days' training.

The 46-year-old took part in the new series of BBC1 hit Who Do You Think You Are?

Emotional: JK Rowling decided to take part in the genealogy show because her late mother was interested in their French heritage

The author is left stunned after researchers reveal that her relative, who went to war at 37, was part of a unit of older men untrained men used not for fighting but only to protect bridges and roads
Valont was serving with the 16th territorial infantry guarding the village of Courcelles-le-Comte when it came under attack from German forces attempting to battle through and take Paris in 1914.

Happily married: The author with her husband Neil Murray, a doctor, (pictured together at a Harry Potter premiere in 2009)

Viewers will see Miss Rowling struggle to contain her emotions, as one French war expert tells her how the battalion fought for seven hours and suffered 800 casualties in a bid to keep the enemy at bay.

Her great-grandfather then led the small team tasked with protecting the rest of the unit in retreat Miss Rowling said she was 'proud' of Valont, 'a waiter' who had little more than two weeks training but became a 'war hero'.

She said: ‘My Louis, who was a waiter and a very ordinary man. He leaps into action. I have always been most impressed with bravery against the odds.

‘Bravery when it looks like you are beaten. Bravery when it seems you are going to die but let’s go down fighting.’

The resistance in Courcelles-le-Comte helped keep German forces at bay and ensured Paris remained free until the end of World War I.

For his bravery he was awarded the Croix de Guerre – a French decoration awarded to rank and file fighters.

In the programme, Miss Rowling, who spent years living on benefits struggling to make ends meet  with her baby daughter Jess, after the break down of her first marriage, also discovered she came from a 'line of single mothers' going back several generations.

Miss Rowling is now married to Neil Murray, who is a doctor, and the couple have a daughter Mackenzie, six, and son, David, eight.

She fled Portugal in the 1990s after her first marriage to TV journalist Jorge Arantes broke down, and settled in Edinburgh with their daughter Jessie, now 18.

The star revealed that she decided to take part in the genealogy show because her mother, who died aged 45 after suffering from multiple sclerosis for years, was interested in their French heritage.

She said: ‘[My mother] was very interested in her French roots but never had a chance to explore them. So a huge motivation in looking into my family history is my mother. It’s very much bound up in that loss.’

Cast members: Rowling with her Harry Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint

But she found that a treasured family story about her great-grandfather Louis Volant may not be all that it seemed.

It had been passed down through generations that he had been awarded the Légion d’honneur for an act of wartime bravery, but researchers found that discrepancies in the story that raised questions about its validity.

Miss Rowling has also been given the award for her services to literature and has publicly spoken of her pride at this link to ancestors.

But programme makers said the writer was shattered by news that Volant may not have been the man he claimed he was.

She also investigates her families experiences during the Franco-Prussian War.

More than 15 years after her novel was first published, Harry Potter is a multi-billion pound franchise that stretches from books and films to clothes and a theme park.

She is also set to take virtual world by storm with a new interactive website that will launch the franchise in e-book format.

The new online project called Pottermore.com will re-ignite Pottermania and is sure to send the popularity of digital reading soaring.

Miss Rowling has written exclusive new and previously unpublished material for Pottermore.com, which is effectively a virtual wizarding world offering users encyclopaedic detail about the original books.

The Harry Potter books have sold about 450 million copies worldwide and for more than a decade each instalment became the must have book in publishing.

Her final Harry Potter novel, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,' was published in 2007. It sold 11 million copies on the first day.

The books spawned a hit movie franchise, which made stars of the three leads Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.

The author has already produced two spin-off books raising thousands for charity, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Quidditch Through the Ages.

A multi-million pound theme park opened last year, while branded fashion and merchandise is worth billions.

BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? will broadcast on Wednesday nights from August 10.

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