Lord Lucan's golf clubs found in London attic

It may not be the breakthrough that Scotland Yard was hoping for but a set of golf clubs belonging to Lord Lucan have been found in an attic in London.

The clubs were discovered during renovations at the Knightsbridge Golf School where Lucan used to play and take golf lessons. The peer had played at the school in Lowndes Square and left his clubs there a day or two before he vanished.

Lucan disappeared after his family’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was found dead at the Belgravia home of his estranged wife in November 1974 after being bludgeoned with a lead pipe.

Lady Lucan was also attacked before she managed to escape and raise the alarm. She later identified Lucan as her assailant.

His car was found abandoned and soaked in blood in Newhaven, East Sussex, and an inquest jury declared Lucan the killer a year later.

What happened to the gambling aristocrat remains a mystery and although he was declared dead by the High Court in 1999 there have been reported sightings of him as far afield as Australia, Ireland and South Africa.

Lucan played at the golf school a couple of times a week with his friends, who would often arrive after a night’s gambling to take early morning lessons from the club’s founder, Leslie King.

Players practised their swings on a piece of coconut matting in a converted squash club.

Coach David Wilkinson, 65, who still teaches at the club, remembers Lucan as friendly and polite.

“He was charming, very tall, very handsome, typically aristocratic,” Mr Wilkinson said.

“I remember him being in the club a day or two before he disappeared. A day or two afterwards the police came round, they interviewed me and asked what he was like when I last saw him, whether he was acting strangely or depressed. I told them he was his usual self.”

The clubs were stored at the school after Lucan disappeared and were forgotten about until the recent renovations.

Celebrities who have practised their golf at the school include Sir Richard Branson, Sir Jackie Stewart, Sir Sean Connery and Sir Christopher Lee. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “The inquiry into the death of Sandra Rivett is the subject of regular reviews, as is the case with all unsolved murders. It has never been closed.

“Any significant new information will be considered.”