Sunday, September 8, 2024

Kirstie Allsopp pays tribute to her father Charles, 6th Baron Hindlip, who has died aged 83

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Her sister Sofie Fletcher, who is also a TV presenter and property expert, posted a separate series of historic family photos on her Instagram account whilst paying tribute.

Ms Fletcher, 44, wrote: “My dad was a complete original, one of the most talented auctioneers of all time, a cartoonist, painter, gardener, a lover of silly limericks, a Legion d’honneur, the only person to ever come out of Ali G interview unscathed but most of all a wonderful father and grandfather.

“Love you Bump, I can’t really imagine life without you but we will try and do you proud.”

In 1968 Lord Hindlip married Allsopp’s mother Fiona Atherley, an interior designer who died in 2014 aged 66 after living with breast cancer for 25 years. The couple had four children together, including Natasha Allsopp and Henry Allsopp.

A member of the House of Lords from 1993 until 1999, in 1997 he was the auctioneer for Princess Diana’s dresses, which raised £2.8million for charity.

He also oversaw the sale of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in 1987, which sold for £24.75million, the most expensive painting ever auctioned at the time.

Last week, Allsopp revealed that her father was back in hospital – following another period of illness in 2022 – and shared her experience of the NHS and visiting hours.

She wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Dad is back in hospital, hopefully briefly, this time I’m just going to tweet observations as the news is full of people saying how they plan to fix this or that and the NHS is a big part of that.”

“Having spent a lot of time in hospitals, here and abroad, signage is a huge issue. We seem addicted to bombarding hospital visitors and patients with info, far more than anyone could absorb and much of it muddling. At 11:30pm getting out of the hospital and back to my car was quite a task,” she added.

She went on: “If a doctor sees a patient at night, when family or carers are not with him, how can they know what is going on if the patient is confused or suffering with dementia?

“Today we’re told ‘no rounds as it is a holiday’ so another day of Dad in hospital when he so longs to be at home.”

Last year, Allsopp paid tribute to Anne and David, the parents of Phil Spencer, her co-presenter on Location, Location, Location, after their car toppled off a bridge and into a river while he and his family were “all going to the pub for lunch” in Littlebourne, Kent.

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