A RETIRED Royal Navy Commander and his devoted wife who spent 65 years together after meeting as teenage sweethearts, carried out a suicide pact at their Yelverton home.

In 2010 David Brittain and his wife Bridget became members of a group called ‘Exit’ which helps people plan to take their own lives.

And last November the inseparable couple, aged 86 and 84, were found dead by their cleaner one morning.

An inquest heard Bridget – known as Biddy – died before her husband killed himself in the same way, using a suicide bag.

The coroner said they had put out ‘cushions to make themselves comfortable’ around where they carried out their pact in the living room of their home.

On a dining room table police found documents about Exit, various equipment and instructions, their own medication and handwritten notes to their children.

The couple had two daughters who described how they wanted to be together in life — and death.

Susan Keeling and Judith Thompson told coroner John Tomalin about their Navy Commander father and their mother who was a secretary who worked for the Conservative Party and St Thomas Hospital in London.

They said their father joined the Navy as a cadet and by 19 was in charge of his own ship before retiring aged 52 as a commander with a ‘very good reputation’.

They travelled around the world and Cdr Brittian was a very good linguist speaking Norwegian, Malay and Turkish.

The daughters said they met when Biddy was 17 and David was 19 and they shared a love of sailing boats, gardening and sport.

They married in 1954 and were married for 61 years — and spent 40 years living at their beloved home in Yelverton.

The Barnstaple inquest heard they were a ‘very private couple’ who were regular churchgoers and did charity work and let local people use the swimming pool in their garden, which they both used daily.

In the last ten years their physical health deteriorated but they wanted to remain together and not end up in residential care.

In 2010 they joined Exit who proclaim: ‘At Exit, we believe this is a fundamental human right for every adult of sound mind, to be able to plan for the end of their life in a way that is reliable, peaceful and at a time of their choosing.’

The inquest heard the elderly couple had openly talked about suicide for five years but had not mentioned it for 18 months so as to avoid causing upset.

 Judith said: ‘Our father said “I will leave this house in a coffin”. We did not want them to do it.’

The inquest heard that their elderly pet dog called Tink had had to be put to sleep the previous week.

The couple went to see a ballet performance at a Plymouth theatre but David suffered a fall – and that may have been the final straw for the couple who then carried out their suicide pact.

Judith said: ‘They had done what they said they would do. It was a massive shock.’

The inquest heard they were ‘proud people who relied on each other’ and their grown up children said: ‘There is some consolation they are still together.’

Their tenant and next door neighbour Kevin Hodge said: ‘They were a very loving and devoted couple who did everything together and they are very sadly missed.’

Forensic pathologist Dr Deborah Cook went to their home and concluded there were no injuries to cause or contribute to their deaths.

She said Biddy died first and it appears David removed the suicide bag from her head and put it on his own head before he inhaled the odourless and colourless helium gas which he had bought in 2010.

Their daughter Susan Keeling, who attended the inquest, said they had not gone to church on the Sunday morning and said their breakfast had only been ‘half laid’ out.

She speculated that her father had fallen and their mother could not lift him up and they then decided ‘this is it’ because they did not want to go into the NHS care system.

Coroner Mr Tomalin concluded they took their own lives saying: ‘It would appear both were willing participants in the act that ended their lives.’