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 Edward Bradford, 1st Baronet Their daughter Beryl Adela (1875–?) never married. Their fifth son, Lt. Col. Edward Austen Bradford, DSO (1879–1958)served with 60th Rifles. Sir Edward Bradford, 1st Baronet Colonel Sir Edward Ridley Colborne Bradford, 1st Baronet, (27 July 1836 – 13 May 1911) was a British Indian Army officer who later served as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, head of the London Metropolitan Police, from 1890 to 1903. Bradford was born in Buckinghamshire, the son of William Mussage Kirkwall Bradford (1806–1878), the rector of West Meon, Hampshire, and was educated from 1846 at Marlborough College. He was commissioned into the East India