Edward Downes Edward Downes Sir Edward Thomas ("Ted") Downes, CBE (17 June 1924 – 10 July 2009) was an English conductor, specialising in opera. He was associated with the Royal Opera House from 1952, and with Opera Australia from 1970. He was also well known for his long working relationship with the BBC Philharmonic and for working with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra. Within the field of opera, he was particularly known as a conductor of Verdi. He and his wife, Lady (Joan) Downes, committed assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland on 10 July 2009, an event that received significant media
Joan Stafford-King-Harman whom she married in 1997, was the judge Sir Robin Dunn, whom she had known since childhood; he had three children from his first marriage. Sir Robin died in 2014. Lady Dunn spent her last years as a resident at Maesbrook care home, Meole Brace, Shrewsbury. Joan Stafford-King-Harman (Cecily) Joan Stafford-King-Harman (7 March 1918 – 12 July 2018), also Mrs Dennehy, later Lady Dunn, was an English socialite and one of the first women to work for MI6. The daughter of Sir Cecil Stafford-King-Harman, 2nd Baronet, of Rockingham in County Roscommon, Ireland, and his wife, the former Sarah Beatrice Acland,