CherieJ Peden's video: The Lord Lucan Story

On 7th November 1974 in one of London’s most fashionable suburbs, Sandra Rivett was murdered in the basement of the family home of Lord and Lady Lucan. Sandra Rivett was employed as nanny to the couple’s three children. It was evening and Sandra offered to make Lady Lucan a cup of tea in the kitchen which was in the basement. Lady Lucan, waiting for her tea in a bedroom upstairs, wondered what had become of Sandra, and walked down to the basement where she was also attacked. She later identified the attacker as her husband, Lord Lucan. The crime made news all over the world, and it never really has been solved. Lord Lucan disappeared in mysterious circumstances, never to be seen again. Lord Lucan’s lineage can be traced back to the Jacobite peerage, created by King James II who was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. These peerages were never recognised by English, Scots or Irish law, but were considered binding in the Jacobite circles of Europe including France, Spain and the Papacy. It could be argued that the descendants of these peers of which Lord Lucan was one, are the actual direct descendants of the true English throne through the Stuart line as opposed to the Hanovers, the German pretenders. This is relevant historically as Lord Lucan had connections to among others, the step father of Lady Diana Spencer, Peter Shand Kydd, and an obvious penchant towards socialising with those of his own class in a gambling den that eventually closed ranks over the scandal and refused to co-operate with the police investigation. George Bingham, Lord Lucan’s son postulates an alternative narrative about the incident that he believes has more credence than the official story. The alternative theory of what happened that night as put forward by George Bingham is perfectly reasonable, but unfortunately there is little there to offer closure to Sandra Rivett’s loved ones who were deprived of closure at the time of the incident and seem to be pushed into the background given the high profile of the participants in the crime. In 2016, a Death Certificate was issued presumably to make the death of Bingham’s father official. He was allowed to take his father’s seat in the House of Lords soon after. In 2017 Lady Lucan died and left her money to a charity for the homeless. The family was torn asunder. There have been many sightings of Lord Lucan down the years, but nobody has really come forward to say they have any knowledge about what actually happened to him. When you read about the sightings online they seem jokey and completely staged. The disappearance of Lord Lucan remains a compelling mystery from a time when aristocrats were referred to as ‘Sir’ and the class system was merely accepted as the norm in English society. Nevertheless, such circumstances can remind us how tragedy can strike without a thought of money, social position, or power.