2 days Ago By The Telegraph
A British victim of the New Orleans terror attack has been identified as the stepson of Prince William and Prince Harry’s former nanny. Edward Pettifer, 31, was named on Friday night as one of the 14 people killed when a pick-up truck rammed into crowds gathered on Bourbon Street in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter on New Year’s Day. He was the eldest son of Charles Pettifer, 59, a former Coldstream Guards officer, and Camilla Wyatt, 58, the daughter of a racehorse breeder.
The couple also had a younger son, Harry, 29, before separating in the mid-1990s. Edward was named by US authorities alongside 13 other victims, including an 18-year-old aspiring nurse and a Princeton graduate, killed when Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a US army veteran with suspected links to Islamic State , sped into a crowd. Charles Pettifer went on to marry Tiggy Legge-Bourke, 59, who worked as a nanny to Princes William and Harry from 1993 until 1999.
They had two sons, Tom, 22, who is Prince William’s godson, and Fred, 23, who is Prince Harry’s godson. Ms Legge-Bourke and Charles Pettifer had known each other since their teenage years and Ms Legge-Bourke was a godmother to Edward. She proved a valuable support to the two princes following the death of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales , and has maintained a close relationship with them both.
Ms Legge-Bourke now runs a bed and breakfast at the family home near Crickhowell, in Wales, where she teaches guests fly fishing just a stone’s throw from Glanusk Park, the 6,000-acre family estate. Like his stepmother, Edward Pettifer was a keen fisherman and skier. He is thought to have attended Stowe School, the prestigious boarding school in Buckinghamshire.
Known to friends as Ed, he was listed at a property just off the King’s Road in Chelsea, west London, with his mother – who is not believed to have remarried – and brother Harry. His paternal grandmother, Liz Pettifer, lives around the corner. Her husband, renowned furniture dealer David Pettifer, Edward’s grandfather, died last August.
After leaving the Coldstream Guards, Charles Pettifer travelled the world as a security consultant. He is now the director of a company that repairs and maintains ships and boats. The New Orleans coroner gave Edward Pettifer’s preliminary cause of death as “blunt force injuries”.
The Foreign Office confirmed that it was supporting the family of a British victim. Edward Pettifer is understood to have been in the Louisiana city with another Briton, who was not hurt, when the attack happened. He had not yet settled on a particular career path but was looking into the possibility of looking after vintage cars.
Mr Pettifer’s family said in a statement: “The entire family are devastated at the tragic news of Ed’s death in New Orleans. He was a wonderful son, brother, grandson, nephew and a friend to so many. “We will all miss him terribly.
Our thoughts are with the other families who have lost their family members due to this terrible attack. “We request that we can grieve the loss of Ed as a family in private. Thank you.
” Edward Pettifer’s half-brother Tom came to public attention at the age of eight, when he was a page boy at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in 2011. In 2018, he was pictured attending Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, now towering over his mother as a 15-year-old..
