Ghana born actor Hugh Antony Quarshie is the 7th celebrity taking part in the current series of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’

Hugh was born on the 22nd December 1954 in Accra, Ghana, and emigrated to England with his family when he was 3 years old. They departed from Lagos, Nigeria on board the ‘Aureol’, part of the Elder Dempster Lines Ltd fleet, which was 537ft long and could carry 253 First class passengers, 76 Cabin class and 145 crew. The ‘Aureol’ arrived in Liverpool on the 21st October 1957.

Hugh was educated at Bryanston School in Blandford Dorset, originally an impressive country house known as ‘The Mansion’. It’s set in 400 acres and was built in the late 1880’s and early 1890’s by Richard Norman Shaw for Viscount Portman.

Using the House and Street search available for Census records on TheGenealogist.co.uk you can search for ‘The Mansion’ in Dorset 1901 and view all the residing occupants. The head of the household in 1901 is recorded as William H B Portman.

The Portman family feature in many of the records available at TheGenealogist.co.uk including Census, Directories and the Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, and as part of the new Diamond subscription, you can access Peerage records for the family.

After attending Bryanston School, Hugh Quarshie then followed his education with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Christchurch University of Oxford, and considered a career in journalism before deciding to take up acting. He has appeared in many films and TV programs including Highlander, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Red Dwarf, Doctor Who and more recently Holby City where he plays Dr Ric Griffin.

In a recent magazine interview, Hugh reveals that his search into his ancestry uncovers a distinguished European line and also a chieftaincy in Ghana.