Four Children Orphaned After Wealthy British Parents Both Plunge From Moroccan Holiday Balconies in Separate Accidents

Four children have been orphaned after their wealthy mother and father plunged to their deaths just days apart.

First Tilly Lamb, 43, died after falling from the third floor of a holiday apartment in Morocco where the family were staying.

Four days later, reportedly overcome by grief, Roger Lamb, 47, plummeted from the second floor balcony of a luxury city centre hotel.

Yesterday relatives were struggling to comfort the couple's devastated children - four 'intelligent, high-flying' boys.

Angus, 16, Monty, 15, Henry, 11, and Felix, nine, are being cared for by an aunt after flying back to Britain from Morocco.

Meanwhile police are trying to establish how and why the parents met their deaths.

But their inquiry is being clouded by distressing and confused information. There has been speculation about whether suicide or foul play were involved, or if the double tragedy was a terrible coincidence.

The family was ripped apart as Mr Lamb, an engineer, was apparently trying to take his wife and sons to New Zealand, where he was working in the wake of the earthquakes that struck Christchurch in September 2010 and February this year.

The couple's £850,000 farmhouse in a Worcestershire village was at one stage on the market.

Mr Lamb told colleagues in Christchurch that the family would be joining him and was said to be house-hunting.

The trip to the exclusive resort of Essaouira on Morocco's western Atlantic coast united them for a period of relaxation, during which they could talk about the move.

However there was confusion over whether the couple had agreed on the emigration plan, and conflicting reports about whether Mr Lamb would stay in New Zealand or come home.

His friend and former colleague Julian Maund, 53, said: 'No one knows exactly what happened. Roger was devoted to Tilly and would have been distraught when she died.

'I'm certainly not aware of any marital problems between the couple, so it couldn't be anything like that.

'He rang me three weeks ago to say he was coming home. I got the impression he was coming home for good and was looking forward to being with his family again.

'He was enthusiastic and dedicated and I am completely in shock at his death.'

The British Embassy in Rabat confirmed that the couple died days apart in separate locations.

A spokesman said that Mathilde Lamb, known as Tilly, fell from an apartment in Essaouira on August 17. She was taken to hospital and died there on August 20.

Mr Lamb was found critically injured some 18 hours later on August 21 beneath a balcony at a the five-star Sofitel hotel in the centre of Essaouira. He was taken to the same hospital but transferred 250 miles away to a specialist unit in Marrakech, where he died on Sunday.

Last night the family's home community of Pensham, near Pershore in Worcestershire, was in 'massive shock'.

Mrs Lamb's 90-year-old mother Rosamund Sain-Ley-Berry, who lives two miles away in the village of Great Comberton, was said to be 'terribly distraught' and was being comforted by her church minister.

The Rev Terry Henderson dedicated a service to the family, whom friends described as 'pillars of the community'.

Mr Lamb, who listed his interests as 'family, fell-running and horses', went to the same school as his wife.

He married her in 1992 after graduating from Birmingham University and setting up his own business.

He was a geotechnic engineer, specialising in the movement and behaviour of the earth, often in relation to the safety of buildings.

Landing a contract with architectural and environmental engineering firm GHD in Christchurch must have been a dream job.

But it meant leaving his family behind for a time. The younger two boys attend the local church primary school and the elder two go to High School nearby in Evesham.

Mrs Lamb ran an upmarket bed and breakfast business, accommodating guests in a converted outbuilding in the farmhouse grounds.

Twelve thousand miles away in Christchurch, Mr Lamb appears to have been impressed with the lifestyle.

A keen horseman, he joined the city's carriage-driving club and made a circle of friends.

Staff there described him as 'a genuinely nice bloke, a real gentleman'.

Last night his brother-in-law Mark Rogerson confirmed there had been discussions about the family moving to New Zealand but said he did not know the details.