Lord Lucan family rift ends as wife is laid to rest
THE bitter family rift that divided the Lucan family for more than 35 years finally ended this week when Veronica, the Dowager Countess of Lucan, was laid to rest.
Although the widow of the 20th century’s most famous fugitive did not speak to her children for more than three decades, her estranged son and heir George, the 8th Earl of Lucan, attended the small service along with close family members including his sisters Frances and Camilla.
Veronica was found dead in her central London home aged 80 seven weeks ago. Poignantly, prayers are being said in her memory during Holy Communion this Sunday at St George’s Hanover Square, which is where her son George, 50, married Danish industrialist’s daughter Anne-Sofie Foghsgaard last year.
Anglo-Irish aristocrat and professional gambler Lord ‘Lucky’ Lucan was thought to be trying to kill Veronica when he bludgeoned nanny Sandra Rivett to death with a lead pipe at his family home in Belgravia, West London, in 1974.
George and his two sisters continued to live with their mother. However, custody was transferred to Veronica’s sister, Christina Shand Kydd, and her husband, Bill, eight years later after Lady Lucan reportedly became mentally ill.
Veronica lived alone around the corner from the murder scene in a leased property held in a Lucan trust. She only formally became the Dowager Countess last year after a death certificate was finally issued for her husband, enabling their son, George, to inherit the family title.
Friends of Lady Lucan had hoped George’s marriage would bring about a reconciliation of the estranged family – but it was not to be. She launched a withering attack, accusing him of ‘bartering the accidental privilege of his birth’ by abandoning her to live with his aunt and uncle.
George said he had no alternative as he was only 14 at the time, and under the direction of his guardianin-law – the Official Solicitor, who acts for people who lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs – he had to move. It is believed Veronica intended to leave nothing to her children and even put her solicitor’s name on forms when asked for her next of kin.
Accused son of ‘abandoning’ her