Family haven’t heard from ‘world’s greatest explorer’ as King Charles is alerted to his 'disappearance'
Family and friends of Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the 'world's greatest living explorer', have claimed they can't make contact with him.
The 82-year-old is famous for being the first person to visit the North and South Pole by surface means only, accomplished during his Transglobe Expedition between 1979 and 1982, and for being the first to cross Antarctica on foot.
Members of his family got in touch with the Daily Telegraph earlier this year to say that the last time he'd been 'seen' in public was on 23 October, 2024 when he sent a video message to the Royal Geographical Society for an event honouring the Transglobe Expedition.
His stepson Alexander said the last time he saw Fiennes in person was in September 2024 when visiting his home, and various friends told the Telegraph that letters and Christmas cards to Fiennes afterwards were sent back unopened.
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The explorer's friend Anton Bowring, who met him as a deckhand on the Transglobe Expedition, let King Charles know about the situation and said he received a reply from one of the king's staff suggesting he was concerned and would like to write to Fiennes.
Bowring passed on the number of Louise, Fiennes' second wife and Alexander's mother, saying contact would have to go through her.
He claimed that later that day he got messages from Louise telling him to 'back off' and threatening legal action, saying that he's not heard from her since then.
Concerned about Fiennes' whereabouts, friends and family searching for the explorer found him last summer after calling round hospitals asking for a man of his description, learning that he'd been in care homes in London under a false name.
Tracking him down to a care home called KYN Hurlingham in Fulham, Bowring attempted to try and see him in person, though didn't succeed.
"I’m not proud of it, but I marched up to the front desk, and I shouted at them: ‘I know you’re hiding him, you b*****ds,'" Bowring told the Telegraph.
Others got in touch with Louise to ask under what circumstances she would allow visitors to Fiennes, and were told they'd have to sign an NDA.
Among those who refused to sign it was his sister-in-law Arabella McIntyre-Brown, the younger sister of his first wife Ginny, who told the Telegraph 'why the f**k should I sign an NDA?' and came up with her own plan.
Her attempt to make contact involved checking herself into the Fulham care home to try and speak with him in person, which she managed to do on 4 July last year.
She said: "He was lucid – personality intact, memory clear, sense of humour there.
"His self-awareness was keen. He knew he was fine in the mornings, but increasingly foggy in the afternoons and evenings."
She said that he told her he wanted to see his friends, but later that day staff told her they knew her relationship to Fiennes and had to inform his wife.
The next day she was told that he wasn't a resident any longer, and she hasn't seen him again and was asked to leave the home as staff told her there was a shortage of beds.
When Alexander, who has been estranged from his mother for several years, and The Telegraph's Alex Diggins later visited the care home staff told them that Fiennes was no longer a resident and they didn't know where he'd gone.
As such, family and friends are in the dark about where he is or how he is doing.
Topics: UK News
Joe Harker