The children of Robert Walmsley—an 81-year-old former vice admiral in the British Navy who hails from a prominent family—are locked in a bitter feud with his widow, insisting that questions remain after his fatal 2022 fall down basement stairs. Walmsley’s second wife, Alexandra, told authorities she found Walmsley dead at the bottom of the stairs of their Cape Cod rental home in 2022. His death was ruled an “accident” from “blunt force head injuries” by U.S. authorities, but Walmsley’s three adult children—one of whom is the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline—hired a U.K. pathologist who wrote in a report that the cause of death could not be ruled out as “a simple shove by a third party,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Alexandra, who was 30 years younger than her late husband, was required to testify at a coroner’s inquest and lashed out publicly against “repeated and vexatious insinuations” after her testimony. Tensions were so hostile at the inquest that barriers needed to be erected between Alexandra and the children to avoid eye contact, according to the Journal. The children have not directly accused Alexandra of any wrongdoing, instead saying they just wanted all questions answered regarding their father’s death. The coroner eventually ruled Walmsley’s death an accident but could not determine what caused the fall.
Read it at The Wall Street Journal
