A case that has preoccupied British public opinion for years seems unlikely to find its answer in court. 44-year-old Nicholas Brandram , grandson of Princess Catherine of Greece and Denmark , was found dead at his home in west London, just days after he was released under investigation.
The Metropolitan Police announced that Brandram was found unconscious at his home in Chiswick on the evening of Tuesday, September 15. Police and paramedics from the London Ambulance Service arrived at the scene at 7:12 p.m. , but the 44-year-old was pronounced dead.
“His next of kin have been informed. At this stage his death is being treated as unexpected , but there are no suspicious circumstances ,” the Metropolitan Police said, according to the British Mirror. His name had not been released while the investigation was ongoing, but authorities have now allowed it to be released.
The case he was involved in is known in Britain as the “Putney Pusher” case. In May 2017 , a man jogging on Putney Bridge in London was caught on security cameras pushing a woman onto the road just as a bus was approaching. The driver managed to react at the last moment and avoid her, saving her from what was likely very serious injury. The video went viral and the unknown perpetrator acquired this nickname in the British media.
Despite years of investigation and widespread publicity, the identity of the man in the video was never definitively determined . No suspects were charged and the investigation was closed in 2018 , until new information led to Brandram’s arrest this summer. Just last week, detectives announced that he had been released on bail while additional inquiries were ongoing.
His lineage is directly linked to the Greek royal family. His father, Paul Brandram , was the only child of Princess Catherine and Major Richard Campbell Andrew Brandram , who served in the British Army during World War II.
Princess Catherine , great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and first cousin of Prince Philip, was born on 4 May 1913 and died on 2 October 2007. She was the sixth child and third daughter of King Constantine I and Sophia of Prussia , sister of three Kings of Greece and a Queen of Romania. In 1941, with the German invasion of Greece, she fled with her brother Paul and his wife Frederica to Crete and from there to Egypt and South Africa, where she worked as a nurse in a hospital in Cape Town. For four years she had no news of her sister Helen, Queen Mother of Romania.
After the war, she returned to England and in 1947 married Major Richard Brantham, a rugby player. The couple had met at sea on the ship “Ascania” , as they were both returning to England from Alexandria.
As for Nicholas himself, he had a successful career in the City of London. He worked at the brokerage Killik & Co and the Israeli bank Bank Leumi , before moving to HSBC , where he managed the assets of wealthy individuals. He had also served as a captain in the British Army, with tours of duty in Iraq , Bosnia and Afghanistan .
His death effectively closes the Putney Pusher case once and for all. Without a defendant there can be no trial, and without a trial no question will ever be formally answered. The woman who nearly lost her life on Putney Bridge nine years ago will be left with a video and a name that was never formally charged.
