Edward Downes "serious health problems" suffered by the couple. A statement issued by the couple's children said that while Downes could have gone on living with his deafness and blindness, he did not want to do so after his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In March 2010, Keir Starmer (director of public prosecutions) stated that Caractacus Downes would not be prosecuted for his involvement with his parents' assisted suicide because it was not in the public interest. Edward Downes Sir Edward Thomas ("Ted") Downes, CBE (17 June 1924 – 10 July 2009) was an English conductor, specialising in opera. He was
Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet Edward Austen, the brother of English novelist Jane Austen). They had nine children, including: Knatchbull died in May 1849, aged 67, at the family's Mersham Hatch estate in Kent, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son from his first marriage, Norton. Lady Knatchbull died in December 1882. Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet PC, FRS (20 December 1781 – 24 May 1849) was a British Tory politician. He held office under Sir Robert Peel as Paymaster of the Forces between 1834 and 1835 and as Paymaster-General between 1841 and 1845. Knatchbull was the son