Horror at Wills’ palace as corpse is found in pond
OVERLOOKING one of London’s most beautiful parks has many advantages for the residents of Kensington Palace, who include the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, as well as Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank.
But there was horror last weekend when word got round that a body had been retrieved from the ornamental lake in front of the palace.
For the family of artist Endellion Lycett Green, granddaughter of much-loved former poet laureate Sir John Betjeman, the discovery was heart-breaking because they were told that the body was hers.
Endellion, 51, who is known to her friends and family as Delli, had been missing for a week and the Metropolitan Police had made public appeals for help in finding her.
However, the family’s grief turned to deep relief when Delli was found alive this week and the corpse turned out to be that of another woman. It had been a case of mistaken identity.
‘My sister Endellion is alive, safe and well,’ her brother John Lycett Green said in a message shared with grateful friends. ‘Thank you all for the support and love you showed for Delli and her family.
‘Sorry to all of you that, like us, were grieving for the wonder that is Delli. We were told a body was found and was her. It was not, and Delli was found last night.’ He added: ‘RIP the soul that was found in Kensington Round Pond on Saturday morning.’
Endellion is a distinguished artist and good friend of David Cameron’s wife, Samantha, and The Wire actor Dominic West. She lives in Wiltshire with her film editor husband Rob Nagel and their two children. A friend of the family tells me: ‘Delli went through a bad patch, but it’s a huge relief to everyone that she is safe and well. It’s been a traumatic week.’
The body found in the pond remains unidentified. A Scotland Yard spokesman tells me: ‘The death is being treated as unexplained at this time, but is not thought to be suspicious. Inquiries are ongoing.’
The spokesman says Endellion’s family were contacted ‘as part of inquiries to establish the identity of the deceased’.