Lord Lucan placed and won a large bet on an amateur golf tournament days before his mysterious disappearance after the murder of his children’s nanny.
The inveterate gambler surprised fellow guests at the Bunny Putters golfing society dinner in 1974 by placing £2,000 — equivalent to about £20,000 today — on a fellow former member of the Coldstream Guards to win the annual tournament.
Rodney Ward, who was on first-name terms with the 7th Earl of Lucan, was “pretty concerned” as he carried the burden of the bet on to the first tee at Royal Worlington and Newmarket golf club, Suffolk, the next morning but held his nerve to win.
Mr Ward, 87, tells the story for the first time in Golf Quarterly, published this week. He admits that he cannot recall whether Lucan took part in the tournament. “If Lucan was playing he went off without remembering to pay my share of the winnings,” Mr Ward said.
“Over the next few days there was some publicity about his gambling habits and it was suggested in some of the newspapers that he was not going to be able to pay his debts. So I thought to myself, ‘I’m not going to get my money’.
Advertisement
“A couple of days later, however, a cheque for £700 arrived in the post. Lucan’s nickname may have been ‘Lucky’ but on this occasion it was me who was the fortunate one.”
Mr Ward and his wife decided to spend the money on new carpets and curtains.
Three days after he received the cheque, Sandra Rivett was murdered at the Lucan family home in Belgravia and the peer disappeared, never to be seen since.
His Ford Corsair was found abandoned and covered in bloodstains in Newhaven, Sussex, and a year later an inquest jury declared him to be Mrs Rivett’s killer.
Although he cannot recall how much Lord Lucan won, Mr Ward does not think that it could have been a huge amount. Betting on the tournament was by way of an auction of players and the £2,000 stake was by far the biggest in the pot. What the reckless size of Lord Lucan’s wager may point to, however, is his state of mind in the days before his disappearance.
Advertisement
The High Court ruled three months ago that the peer was officially dead and that his heir, George Bingham, could inherit the title and become the 8th Earl of Lucan.
Endless theories have been advanced about the disappearance: some saying he fled Britain after the murder and lived into old age in Africa. Others suggesting that he took his own life within days of his disappearance.
Mr Ward said he that knew Lord Lucan reasonably well and that they played golf together a handful of times with the Guards golfing society. The peer’s golf clubs were found three years ago in the attic of the Knightsbridge Golf School, where he used to practise.
As to his theory on Lord Lucan’s disappearance, Mr Ward said that he was “pretty sure [Lucan] threw himself off that ferry from Newhaven into the English Channel”.