Sir Edward and Joan Downes commit suicide

The British conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife Lady Joan Downes have died at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. The couple's children revealed in a statement that their parents decided to end their lives together after struggling with serious health problems.
 
Downes, who conducted the BBC Philharmonic for 40 years, was almost blind and increasingly deaf. He was 85. Lady Downes, who was 74, was terminally ill, their son and daughter, Caractacus and Boudicca, said. The couple, who had been together for 54 years, died on Friday at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich. "They died peacefully, and under circumstances of their own choosing," the statement read.
 
Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland and Dignitas claim to have helped more than 100 British people end their lives since the clinic was established in 1998. They include the 23-year-old rugby player Daniel James who committed suicide last year after becoming paralysed during a rugby game. British detectives are investigating the circumstances of the Downes' deaths, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.
 
Sir Edward Downes was revered within the opera and classical worlds as a Verdi specialist. As the associate music director of the Royal Opera House he conducted 950 performances of 49 operas at Covent Garden. In 1970 he became Australian Opera's music director, and conducted the Sydney Opera House's first performance.

Downes was born in comparative poverty in Birmingham and picked up his first violin at the age of five. When he won a scholarship to read English and music at Birmingham University at the age of 16 he didn't tell his parents - but left them to read about it in the local paper.

He first served with the BBC Philharmonic as its chief guest conductor, becoming principal conductor, and finally conductor emeritus. He was appointed a CBE in 1986 and was knighted in 1991.
 
Lady Joan was a ballet dancer who became a choreographer and TV producer. She spent her later years working as her husband's personal assistant. ·