Edward Downes after his health declined following a hip replacement. Lady Downes was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer that metastasised to her liver, and given only weeks to live. Lady Downes wrote a letter to family explaining that she had decided against treatment and that: Sir Edward, aged 85, and Lady Downes, aged 74, ended their lives by assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Zürich, Switzerland, on 10 July 2009. Although Joan did not want the children present, Dignitas encouraged it and "Ted and Joanie" were reported to be pleased when the time came. Their children issued a statement speaking of
Kerry Downes Kerry Downes Kerry John Downes (born 1930) is an English architectural historian whose speciality is English Baroque architecture. He is the son of the organist Ralph Downes (190493). He studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where he was inspired by the lectures of Margaret Whinney. He has written about (among other things) the English architects Nicholas Hawksmoor (1736), Sir John Vanbrugh (16641726) and Sir Christopher Wren (16321723), and the Flemish painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens (15771640). His fellow historian James Stevens Curl has written, "Downes's productivity seems to contradict his claim that procrastination is one of his recreations". In