Why Lady K won't be at her own 'funeral'
Family refuse to release body in row with businessman pal
WHEN mourners arrive for what has been publicly announced as the ‘ funeral’ of Jacqueline, Lady Killearn, in Devon this afternoon, they will be in for a surprise.
For I can reveal that the body of the celebrated society hostess, who died last week aged 105, will not be present. It has been removed by her family, who plan to hold the real funeral in London later this month.
‘This is not the funeral,’ a friend of the family says of today’s service in Bickleigh. ‘No one from the family will be there. We want nothing to do with it all. It’s all most strange.’
The ‘funeral service’ was announced in a newspaper on Tuesday by Robert Hay, the flamboyant property agent who was involved in a bitter battle with Lady Killearn’s son and grandson over the sale of the family home in East Sussex.
Lady Killearn, grandmother of supermodel Liberty Ross, was said to have wanted to offload the 13-bedroom Jacobean mansion for a
knock- down price of £1.65 million to raise funds to enable her to ‘live with dignity’ in her later years.
But the sale was blocked at the High Court in 2011 by her son, the current Lord Killearn, and grandson, who said Haremere Hall (which was on the market for £4 million in 2004) had been woefully undervalued. It was, however, eventually sold three months ago, for £2.4 million, to a friend of Hay, 68.
Mr Hay had Lady Killearn’s power of attorney — to the dismay of her family — and is executor of her will. She also owned a London townhouse, thought to be worth £10 million.
Jacqueline married Sir Miles Lampson, later 1st Lord Killearn, in 1934 and they had a son, the current Lord Killearn, and two daughters.
Known for her impeccable dress sense, Lady Killearn rose to the pinnacle of society during world war II, entertaining winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, while her husband was ambassador in Cairo.
After his death in 1964, Jacqueline became well known for her flamboyant annual birthday parties in London. At one, disaster was narrowly averted when Princess Aly Khan’s hair ignited — only to be extinguished with a glass of champagne. Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes met his wife, Emma, at another.
In 2008, Lady Killearn became embroiled in a humiliating public spat with a former butler.
Paolo Sclarandis took the dowager to an employment tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal, and accused her of treating him like a ‘slave’. He claimed she threw walking sticks at him.
The panel ruled in the butler’s favour, but awarded him only £1,200.
Mr Hay declined to comment.