Faces of the Britons who died in Italy quake horror
SMILING and carefree, these are the British victims of the earthquake which has devastated Italy.
Maria and Will Henniker- Gotley were staying in their holiday home, purchased and lovingly renovated by Mrs Henniker-Gotley’s late father some ten years ago.
But in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the eight-bedroom farmhouse in Sommati that they were sharing with another family came crashing to the ground.
The couple’s children Francesca and Jack, aged 12 and 14, have been orphaned after the earthquake which ripped through the village – a mile from the worst-hit town of Amarice – turning the property into a pile of rubble.
Mrs Henniker-Gotley, 51, was a finance manager for the London-based Children and Arts charity. Her 55-year-old husband – believed to be an Oxford graduate – was a consultant. Staying with the couple, from south London, were their friends Anne-Louise and Simon Burnett, whose 14-year-old son Marcos died in the tragedy.
His parents and sister escaped with injuries and were last night being treated in hospital.
Mrs Henniker- Gotley’s cousin Carlo Taliani, 38, who owns a restaurant in a nearby village, said he received a call informing him that the couple – who had come to see him just days earlier – were dead.
He said the couple had loved returning to the village where Mrs Henniker- Gotley’s father Sante, who emigrated to London, was from. Sante named the holiday home Villa Olivia after his late wife.
Mr Taliani, who is housing many of the homeless in a makeshift tent on his land, said the house was renovated in a very British manner, despite its rural Italian location in the Rieti province. He said: ‘She (Mrs Henniker-Gotley) moved a lot between London and here. She liked it because of her roots.’ He said the family were known to locals for doing traditional British things such as having afternoon tea.
Mr Taliani learned of the tragedy after Mrs Henniker-Gotley’s sister called a mutual friend and asked him to collect her from Rome airport so she could care for her orphaned niece and nephew.
He said he was surprised the home was flattened as it was renovated fairly recently, adding: ‘You would not have expected it to crumble like that – you would have thought that they would have been able to get out.’ Marcos, along with Jack, was a pupil at £6,500-a-term Wetherby school in Notting Hill, west London, where Princes William and Harry studied and the Beckhams’ children also attend.
Yesterday the school’s headmaster Nick Baker paid tribute to Marcos as an ‘utterly charming’ boy. He added: ‘He was quick-witted, always had a smile on his face and wanted to be involved in everything.
‘He was a friend to all and a credit to his school and family. He will be missed by all that knew him.’
His parents both suffered broken bones, while his sister is understood to have minor injuries.
It is thought they were only told their son had not survived on Thursday, when a relative visited them from Britain. Mr Burnett and his wife – who is believed to be a director at JP Morgan in the City – are from Bayswater, west London.
Neighbours described Marcos as a ‘nice, normal teenage boy’ who was always on his skateboard.
Yesterday Angelo Bonanni, who owns a restaurant which backs on to the Henniker- Gotleys’ holiday home, said he had helped rescue the couple’s two children. His father Nando added that the youngsters were ‘terrified’ but did not immediately know their parents had died, saying: ‘I waited for their aunt Giulia to come here at about 10pm.’
He said the Burnett couple and three of the children survived because they were sleeping on the top floor, whereas the hosts and Marcos were on the ground floor and crushed by the impact of the earthquake. Neighbour Bruno Formicola, 50, told The Daily Telegraph how he heard cries for help in English coming from the rubble.
A joint statement from the families issued by the Foreign Office said: ‘It is with sadness that we can confirm the deaths of Maria, 51, and Will Henniker-Gotley, 55, and Marcos Burnett, 14, in the earthquake in Amatrice.
‘Their families have paid tribute to the tireless work of the Italian rescue workers and hospital staff.’
The Queen has made an undisclosed donation to the British Red Cross to support rescue efforts in the area. Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh said their ‘thoughts and prayers’ were with victims.