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
Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet (17 March 1746 – 5 June 1800) of Churston Court in the parish of Churston Ferrers, of nearby Lupton in the parish of Brixham, and of Prince Hall on Dartmoor, all in Devon, was an English judge. Buller was born at Downes House in the parish of Crediton in Devon, a younger son of James Buller (1717-1765), of Downes and of King's Nympton Park, both in Devon and of Morval in Cornwall, a Member of Parliament for Cornwall, by his second wife Lady Jane Bathurst, daughter of Allen Bathurst, 1st