John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan

Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (born 18 December 1934 – disappeared 8 November 1974, declared dead 3 February 2016), commonly known as Lord Lucan, was a British peer and an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, the eldest son of George Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan, and Kaitlin Dawson.

He was the great-great grandson of George Charles Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan who led the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade.

Richard John Bingham was born on 18 December 1934 at 19 Bentinck Street, Marylebone, London, the second child and elder son of George Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan, an Anglo-Irish peer, and his wife, Kaitlin Elizabeth Anne Dawson.

A blood clot found in his mother's lung forced her to remain in a nursing home, so John, as he became known, was initially cared for by the family's nurserymaid, Lucy Sellers.

Aged three years, John attended a pre-prep school in Tite Street with his elder sister Jane.

In 1939, with the Second World War approaching, the two were taken to the relative safety of Wales.

In 1940, joined by their younger siblings Sally and Hugh, the Lucan children travelled to Toronto in Canada, moving shortly thereafter to Mount Kisco, New York, United States.

They stayed for five years with multi-millionairess Marcia Brady Tucker.

John was enrolled at The Harvey School and spent summer holidays away from his siblings at a summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains.

While in the US, John and his siblings lived in grandeur and wanted for nothing, but on their return to England in February 1945 they were faced with the stark realities of wartime Britain.

Rationing was still in force, their former home at Cheyne Walk had been bombed, and the family's house at 22 Eaton Square had had its windows blown out.

Despite the family's noble ancestry, the 6th Earl and his wife were agnostics and socialists who preferred a more austere existence than that offered by Tucker, an extremely wealthy Christian.

For a time, John suffered nightmares and was taken to a psychotherapist.

As an adult he remained an agnostic, but ensured that his children attended Sunday school, preferring to give them a traditional childhood.

At Eton College, John developed a taste for gambling.

He supplemented his pocket money with income from bookmaking, placing his earnings into a "secret" bank account, and regularly left the school's grounds to attend horse races.

He was known as Lord Bingham from April 1949 until January 1964, during his father's lifetime.

Considered for the role of James Bond, Lucan was known for his expensive tastes; he raced power boats and drove an Aston Martin.

An evacuee during the Second World War, Lucan returned to attend Eton College, and served with the Coldstream Guards in West Germany from 1953 to 1955.

Having developed a taste for gambling, he played backgammon and bridge, and was an early member of the exclusive group of rich British gamblers at the Clermont Club.

Lucan's losses often exceeded his winnings, yet he left his job at a London-based merchant bank and became a professional gambler.

According to his mother, John's academic record was "far from creditable", but he became captain of Roe's House before leaving in 1953 to undertake his National Service.

He became a second lieutenant in his father's regiment, the Coldstream Guards, and was stationed mainly in Krefeld, West Germany.

While there, he also became a keen poker player.

In 1963, Lucan married Veronica Duncan, with whom he had three children.

The couple moved home to 46 Lower Belgrave Street in Belgravia in 1967, paying £17,500 for the house.

After the marriage collapsed in late 1972, he moved out to a nearby property.

A bitter custody battle ensued, which Lucan eventually lost.

Apparently obsessed with regaining custody of the children, Lucan began to spy on his wife and record their telephone conversations.

This fixation, combined with mounting legal expenses and gambling losses, had a dramatic effect on Lucan's life and personal finances.

On 7 November 1974, Sandra Rivett, the nanny of Lucan's children, was murdered in the Lucan family home.

A wounded Lady Lucan burst into the Plumbers Arms saying she had been attacked by her husband and that he had admitted to killing Rivett.

Lord Lucan had, by then, telephoned his mother, asking her to collect his children, and drove to visit a friend in Uckfield, East Sussex; to his mother and friend, he said he had intervened with an assailant attacking his wife.

Lucan also penned a letter.

On 8 November, Lucan drove off.

The car was found abandoned in Newhaven, its interior stained with blood and its boot containing a piece of bandaged lead pipe similar to one found at the crime scene.

Despite police issuing a warrant for his arrest, Lucan was never found.

At the inquest into Rivett's death, held in June 1975, the jury returned a verdict naming Lucan as her killer.

Lucan was declared legally dead in 1999, and a death certificate issued in 2016, allowed his titles to be inherited by his son George.

Lucan's involvement in Rivett's murder and his fate remain a subject of debate, various theories, and continuing research.