Diamonds heiress who shunned family fortune dies - decomposed body of Anna Wernher found on Holly Lodge Estate

Published: 13 May 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

AN heiress to a vast diamond fortune who shunned her aristocratic family in favour of a quiet life in Highgate was found dead by a care­taker, an inquest heard.

Anna Wernher, daughter of Sir Derrick Julius Wernher, 2nd Baronet, was found dead in her home in Langbourne Avenue on the Holly Lodge Estate in February.

The 85-year-old, who lived alone, was discovered when a caretaker noticed she hadn’t put her rubbish out for collection and called the police.

An inquest at St Pancras Coroner’s Court last Wednesday was unable to establish how Ms Wernher died as her body was badly decomposed by the time she was found. 

Described as a “recluse,” the inquest heard that she had cut all ties with her family, whose fortune was made by her grandfather Sir Julius Charles Wernher, 1st Baronet, in the diamond mines of South Africa.

Sir Julius, the owner of one of Britain’s grandest historic estates at Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire, was one of the richest men in Britain with a ­fortune of £12million when he died in 1912. Much of his vast art collection is now displayed in the Ranger’s House in Greenwich, and a large memorial to him exists in the entrance to the Royal School of Mines in ­London.

Alexander Wills, a close friend of Ms Wernher, said that she complained of feeling “very unwell” when he spoke to her three weeks before she was found.

“It was par for the course because she was never feeling very well,” he said. “I didn’t take any particular notice and said to her ‘give me a ring when you’re feeling better and I’ll come and have some tea’.”  

That was the last time Mr Wills spoke to Ms Wernher, who he described as “suspicious” of medical care. 

“She would not seek medical advice for obvious conditions that she suffered,” he added. “There was nothing I could do to persuade her to seek assistance at all.”

Recording an open verdict, assistant deputy coroner Suzanne Greenaway said: “I don’t have any evidence that’s going to help me to say there’s a particular medical cause of her death. The medical cause cannot be ascertained.”

The Wernher family’s mansion was sold to Elite Hotels in 1999, and is now a luxury five-star hotel with an 18-hole golf course, spa and more than 1,000 acres of parkland. The main estate has remained in the hands of the family since it was bought in 1903. 

It is believed Ms Wernher will be buried in the family mausoleum in East Hyde, Bedfordshire.