The close friend of world-famous explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes said he was “very happy” that his pal’s disappearance had made national headlines after raising his own concerns.
Relatives told media outlets last week they were worried about Sir Ranulph’s welfare after being unable to see or speak to him for “months”. His sister-in-law Arabella Pepper told BBC “Newsnight” she did not know where he was and nobody had been able to see him.
“All his friends and family want to see him and take him Toblerones and cheer him up, but we don’t know where he is,” she said.
It was alleged that Sir Ranulph, (82), had been admitted to a number of care homes under assumed names after a family rift involving his second wife, Louise Millington-Cotes. His stepson, Alex Millington-Cotes, told the BBC he wanted the power of attorney “removed from my own mother” and placed with people who “have fully his best interests in mind”.
The King was also reportedly blocked when he tried to check on the wellbeing of his long-time friend after being alerted to concerns about his declining health and isolation. Charles was left “most concerned” about the adventurer, who has not been seen in public for two years, after fellow explorer Anton Bowring wrote to him in February last year asking for help, “The Telegraph” reported.
Ms Millington-Cotes has not responded to journalists’ requests for comment and has asked not to be further contacted. Sir Ranulph is now thought to be living at his home near Whitchurch.
Robert Burns, who runs Burns’s Garages on Canal Street, said he felt “very happy” that concerns had been raised about Sir Ranulph’s welfare.
He said: “It was highly unusual that I wasn’t able to make contact with him to check on his well being as a friend after he gave up driving. There are some very influential people who are going to get behind it and find out what’s happening now.”
Mr Burns said his friendship with the explorer began when Sir Ranulph tried to buy a Ford Mondeo over the phone. “We’d recently had a fraud incident which had cost us several thousand pounds, so we were very tight on security,” he said.
“I had a call from someone who said they had a ‘VIP’ who wanted to buy a car over the phone. I thought ‘well that’s a load of bollocks, it’s another fraud’!”
Mr Burns insisted on speaking to the anonymous celebrity, who then revealed his identity. “I’d read a few of his books and it was obviously him,” he said.
“I told him he’d need to come into the office because we had to have his signature for the sale to go through. He was stuck at Manchester Airport, so I told him I’d come and pick him up.”
He recalled chatting with Sir Ranulph about his first wife, fellow explorer Ginny Fiennes, who died in February 2004. “We got on really well. We sold him the car and from then on, I’d always meet him and have a chat when we picked the car up for a service,” he said.
Later, Burns’s Garages sponsored one of Sir Ranulph’s trips to Norway and, as the “Chronicle” reported at the time, the explorer held talks about his expeditions at the garage. Mr Burns also loaned him a £30,000 Ford Transit van, specially adapted for snow, for a trial run in Sweden ahead of a mammoth trek in Scandinavia.
An appearance in court in 2010, after Sir Ranulph admitted driving without due care and attention, cemented the friendship. Returning from a 42-mile high-peak marathon, which his team won, he had a “momentary loss of consciousness at the wheel” and collided with another vehicle on the A6 in Heavily.
He was fined £1,000 and received four penalty points at Stockport Magistrates’ Court. Ahead of the appearance, Sir Ranulph asked Mr Burns to drive him.
“There was a lot of press around and I felt like a celebrity,” Mr Burns said. “We were running a gauntlet through people taking pictures and shouting at him. We had to go in through the cells at the back of the court.”
Sixty-six years old at the time, Mr Burns said Sir Ranulph was still keeping fit by climbing Snowdon every week and speaking at after-dinner events across the country. “His fee to have him speak at an evening event was around £6,000,” he said.
“But to save money, he was sleeping in his car. He’d just put a sleeping bag on the back seat rather than pay for a hotel.”
The two kept in touch and, when Sir Ranulph’s ill health meant he could no longer drive, he emailed Mr Burns to say he was sad they would not be in contact as often.
Mr Burns said: “Without a doubt, it is a positive thing that this has hit the national headlines. I was concerned about him. It was highly unusual that I wasn’t able to make contact to check on his wellbeing after he’d given up driving.
“I’d love to have contact with him again. He’s a really intelligent, interesting person who has an opinion on nearly everything and he’s done such a lot. He has an incredible memory and was open with me about his Parkinson’s diagnosis and how it was affecting him. He felt embarrassed that it was affecting his public speaking and felt conscious of it all the time.”
He added: “I’d love to catch up with him to see how he’s doing. I think such a lot of him, we had a close friendship, and I’d love to tell him what he means to all of us here.”
(Photos: Robert Burns).
