Ludovic Kennedy leaves his fortune to family

AUTHOR and broadcaster Sir Ludovic Kennedy left £323,092 in his will – and a last request to have his ashes scattered on a river beside his Scottish birthplace.

The former presenter of BBC's flagship Panorama programme died aged 89 in a nursing home last October after developing pneumonia following a fall in 2008.

Kennedy lived most of his life in England, but always maintained a love of the West End area of Edinburgh where he grew up.

He asked in his will that he be cremated and his ashes scattered on the Water of Leith where he played as a child. Kennedy said his remains should go on a stretch of the river flowing by the garden of his nephew Richard Calvocoressi's home in Warriston Crescent, Edinburgh.

He specified that his if nephew's family had moved, then his ashes should be scattered "at any convenient place" where the river flows through Ann Street Gardens. The spot is midway between the house in Upper Dean Terrace where he once lived and his grandparents' former home at Belgrave Crescent, where he was born.

His daughter Rachel Hall, of Oxford, yesterday refused to confirm if his wishes had been carried out, describing it as "a private matter". "My father was such a great man. This is just something we want for ourselves."

Probate records released last week reveal that Kennedy of Sedgehill near Shaftesbury, Wiltshire, left the bulk of his estate to his son and three daughters. His wife Moira Shearer, the star of the classic ballet film The Red Shoes, died in 2006 aged 80 after 56 years marriage.

Kennedy began his broadcasting career as a newsreader when ITN started in 1955 and went on to anchor several BBC current affairs shows. A member of the Liberal Democrat Party for much of his life, he stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate in 1958.