# What Happens To The Title if Lord Lucan Turns Up Alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2016, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-title-if-lord-lucan-turns-up-alive/775024 "2016-12-18T04:18:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-title-if-lord-lucan-turns-up-alive/775024/1 "2016-12-18T04:18:05Z")
[John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bingham,_7th_Earl_of_Lucan) was (is?) a British peer. He inherited the title upon the demise of his father, the 6th Earl, in 1964. In 1974, the Earl’s children’s nanny was found, bludgeoned to death. Bingham was a suspect in the murder and disappeared. He has not been seen since. For years, his son, George Bingham, tried to claim the title Earl of Lucan, but could not because the Lord Chancellor of Parliament could not issue a writ of summons without a death certificate. In 2014, Parliament passed the Presumption of Death Act which allowed a death certificate to be issued for Lord Lucan. As a result, George Bingham was allowed to inherit the title and become the 8th Earl of Lucan. However, what would happen to the title if the 7th Earl turns up alive? Would the title revert to him? Would the son be allowed to keep the title? Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-title-if-lord-lucan-turns-up-alive/775024/2 "2016-12-18T05:02:06Z")
My guess is, he’d retain the title but have to account for his whereabouts when the nanny was murdered. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-title-if-lord-lucan-turns-up-alive/775024/3 "2016-12-18T05:11:27Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > My guess is, he’d retain the title but have to account for his whereabouts when the nanny was murdered. Oh, I’m sure that he’d have to face legal issues for the murder. I was asking strictly about the title. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-title-if-lord-lucan-turns-up-alive/775024/4 "2016-12-18T09:02:37Z")
He’d have enough in the way of legal bills to make it not worth his while to launch a new case to get the title back. More important would be any property the son might have inherited - he might well want to get his hands on that, but I have no idea how that might go. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-title-if-lord-lucan-turns-up-alive/775024/5 "2016-12-18T10:01:47Z")
Sections 6 and 7 of the Act allow for révocation of a declaration and re-jigging of property transfers that occurred under a declaration. It doesn’t expressly address titles, however. I would think that would be something that the House of Lords would have to decide - didn’t they retain the power to determine title claims, as the last vestige of their judicial powers? > **[ukpga\_20130013\_en.pdf](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/13/pdfs/ukpga_20130013_en.pdf)** > > 258.16 KB ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-the-title-if-lord-lucan-turns-up-alive/775024/6 "2016-12-18T12:17:05Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I would think that would be something that the House of Lords would have to decide - didn’t they retain the power to determine title claims, as the last vestige of their judicial powers? Nothing would surprise me, but they might start by saying “Must we? Do you _really_ want to bother? Let’s wait till your domestic business with the police is sorted out”.