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
Mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Burton Mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Burton The Mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Burton is a Grade II* listed tent-shaped mausoleum of Carrara marble and Forest of Dean stone in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It contains the tombs of the Victorian explorer Sir Richard Burton (1821–90), who took part in the search for the source of the River Nile and translated "The Arabian Nights", and his wife Isabel, Lady Burton (1831–96), who designed it. The coffins of Sir Richard and Lady Burton can be seen