Have Lord Lucan’s last secrets died with his brother in South Africa? Younger sibling had ‘spoken of Lucan’s innocence yet refused to reveal if he was alive’… and there could be clues in a book he was working on
- Hugh Bingham died in July and may have taken his brother’s secrets to the grave
- Lord Lucan’s brother moved to South Africa just months after disappearance
- Move sparked unsubstantiated rumours brother helped him slip out of Britain
- He would talk about brother’s ‘innocence’ but refused to reveal if he was alive
- It is also anticipated there could be further clues in a book he was working on
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The younger brother of Lord Lucan has died in South Africa, sparking speculation he may reveal details about what became of his notorious sibling from beyond the grave.
Hugh Bingham died in July, aged 78, following a long illness.
He had been living a reclusive life in a suburb of Johannesburg where he had worked as librarian to the Theosophical Society, a non-religious organisation.
Hugh Bingham died in July, aged 78, following a long illness
The 7th Earl of Lucan – Lord Richard John Bingham – with Veronica Duncan, who later became Lady Lucan, on the eve of their engagement
Lord Lucan and Veronica Duncan after their marriage in 1963. He vanished in November 1974, the day after the murdered body of their nanny, Sandra Rivett, was found at the family home in Belgravia, London
The Oxford graduate was close to his older brother, John, the 7th Earl of Lucan, who vanished in November 1974 after being named as the killer of his children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett.
He moved to South Africa just months after his brother’s disappearance, sparking unsubstantiated rumours that he may have been in contact with his sibling who had managed to slip out of Britain.
Mr Bingham – who believed his brother was innocent – had been working on a ghost-written ‘autobiography’ of Lucan putting forward theories about his possible escape and various guises that he may then have adopted.
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James Sanders, an investigative journalist who knew him well, said Mr Bingham would regularly hint at vital evidence about Lord Lucan’s fate, but stop short of providing solid evidence.
‘He would talk at length about his brother’s innocence, yet refused to reveal if Lucan was still alive or where he had lived,’ said Mr Sanders.
‘It was impossible to know if they were in touch, though it seemed likely.’
Lucan went missing on November 7, 1974, after an intruder at the family home in Belgravia, Central London, bludgeoned Mrs Rivett to death and attacked the peer’s estranged wife (pictured)
Scotland Yard say the peer remains a suspect over the 1974 killing of Sandra Rivett (pictured) and insist there is no ‘evidential or tangible proof’ for his death
Lady Lucan later identified her attacker as her husband, and an inquest named him as Mrs Rivett’s (pictured) killer
With Mr Bingham’s death, there is now speculation that documents may emerge detailing what became of Lucan.
It is also anticipated there could be further clues in the book he was working on.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday in 2016 after the High Court ruled his brother was dead, Mr Bingham said: ‘John had no option but to flee. He would have considered his chances of a fair trial to be very slim.’
Hugh Bingham had been living a reclusive life in a suburb of Johannesburg (pictured)
He revealed that one of the theories covered in his Lucan autobiography described the peer escaping Britain with a fake passport and building a new life as a farm manager in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal province.
Mr Bingham also suspected Lucan’s wife, Lady Veronica, who died last year, had been involved in an affair with a Scotland Yard officer.
Speaking about how Lucan had trusted him, he said: ‘He confided in me during the most difficult times in his marriage, and I sympathised deeply with his plight.’
How bludgeoned Lady Lucan was one of the last people to see Lord Lucan alive before he disappeared
Detectives believe Lord Lucan intended to murder his wife and killed the nanny by mistake
John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan, vanished after the body of nanny Sandra Rivett was found at the family’s London home on November 7, 1974.
Lady Lucan was bludgeoned when she ran downstairs to investigate, but managed to escape and raise the alarm.
Lord Lucan’s blood-stained car was later found abandoned in Newhaven, East Sussex, but he was never successfully traced.
Lucan was never seen in public again, and his body was never found, leading to decades of fevered speculation about his whereabouts.
In 1975, an inquest jury declared him to have been Ms Rivett’s killer.
Detectives believe the aristocrat – an abusive husband and heavy gambler nicknamed ‘Lucky Lucan’ – intended to murder his wife and killed the nanny by mistake.
His marriage to Lady Lucan had been described as ‘grimly unhappy.’
The mystery of Lord Lucan’s disappearance still intrigues Britain.
His marriage to Lady Lucan (pictured with their son George, three) had been described as ‘grimly unhappy’
The High Court declared him dead for probate purposes in 1999, but there have been scores of reported sightings around the world, in countries including Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand.
In an ITV documentary last year, Lady Lucan said she believed Lord Lucan had jumped off a ferry shortly after the killing.
‘I would say he got on the ferry and jumped off in the middle of the Channel in the way of the propellers so that his remains wouldn’t be found,’ she said, calling what she believed to be his final act ‘brave.’
The couple had three children.
In 2016 a court issued a ‘presumption of death’ certificate for Lord Lucan, a ruling that cleared the way for the couple’s son, George Bingham, to become the 8th Earl of Lucan.
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