An elderly former taxi driver and his devoted wife jumped to their deaths in a suicide pact from a popular beauty spot as he struggled to cope with the pain of bone cancer, an inquest heard today.

David Jeffcock, 80, and his wife Susan, 74, had tidied their seaside retirement apartment, placed their financial affairs in order and delivered a note to their solicitor apologising for their plan of action, with Mr Jeffcock saying: ‘Susan wants to come with me.’

They then walked from their beloved flat overlooking Whitby Harbour, North Yorks, climbed 199 steps up to Whitby Abbey and stood briefly at the top of a cliff before plunging 180ft to their deaths.

It was initially thought the couple, who had been married for 52 years, jumped ‘hand in hand’ on the evening of July 30.

But an inquest at Northallerton Coroners’ Court heard Mrs Jeffcock may have ‘hesitated’ momentarily after her husband jumped first, before deciding to follow him as planned.

‘She chose to go with him,’ Mr Jeffcock’s nephew, Kevin Shepherd, said in a statement read by coroner Jonathan Leach. ‘That shows their devotion to each other. We will never forget them.’

The inquest heard that Mrs Jeffcock was ‘the love of [Mr Jeffcock’s] life’ from the moment they met when he returned to the UK following three years living in Australia as a ‘ten pound pom’ under the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme set up in the aftermath of the Second World War.

The couple, who initially settled in Sheffield, South Yorks, and decided not to have children, ‘lived well together’ and had similar interests, regularly enjoying visits to pubs and clubs and holidays abroad, including a number of cruises.

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The couple were said to enjoy holidays abroad and meeting new people in the pubs and clubs around Whitby, North Yorkshire

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Mr and Mrs Jeffcock were devoted to each other and had been married for 52 years at the time of their deaths in July

Mr Jeffcock worked as a taxi driver and would often tell stories about ‘the famous people who had been in the back of his taxi,’ Mr Shepherd said in his statement.

He later drove a bus for the council for more than 20 years, transporting the elderly and children with additional needs to school. Mrs Jeffcock worked as a secretary for tools giant Stanley.

The couple had always ‘dreamed of retiring to the seaside’ and eventually moved to the coastal resort of Whitby, overlooking the harbour, and ‘loved living there’.

Mr Shepherd said Mr Jeffcock was his ‘favourite uncle’ and the couple were ‘nice people… not flash… modest and respectable’.

However, in his later years, Mr Jeffcock suffered from bone cancer and told his nephew ‘how difficult it was to control the pain’.

He said he could ‘only conclude that he was in so much pain that he didn’t want to live’.

The court heard that a mobile phone and jacket weighed down with a brick belonging to Mrs Jeffcock had been found at the top of the cliff ‘as some sort of marker’.

The pair were pronounced dead by emergency services after a passer-by found their belongings and saw two bodies. They died from multiple traumatic injuries, the inquest heard.

Recording a conclusion of suicide, Mr Leach said neither had any history of mental health issues but Mr Jeffcock had been struggling with his ‘physical health’. He said the letter sent to their solicitor showed their intention to end their lives.

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They had retired to the seaside having spent most of their lives living in Sheffield, South Yorkshire

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The Jeffcocks had always wanted to retire to the coast and settled on picturesque Whitby after initially moving from Sheffield to Skegness

‘I offer my condolences to the family and friends of Mr and Mrs Jeffcock in respect of their loss,’ he added.

In an interview with the Daily Mail in September, Mr Shepherd said: ‘It is extremely sad to think of them in that position, where they both wanted to take their own lives and to go together.

‘But a friend of mine reminded me that they had made up their own minds and they did what they wanted to do, which brings some comfort, it was their own decision.

‘The last time I saw them, my Uncle David really wasn’t himself. He was withdrawn and clearly struggling with the pain brought about by the bone cancer.

‘We think it’s possible he may have learnt he didn’t have much longer to live and rather than live out that time in pain he had chosen to end it.

‘Between them they had come to the decision that Susan wanted to go with him, I suppose she just didn’t see what her life would be without him.’

As well as the Jeffcocks, two other people tragically died at the popular seaside resort over a four-day period this summer.

On July 31 the body of grandmother Joan Blanchon, 69, was discovered at the bottom of the cliffs by Whitby Pavilion.

And on August 2 the body of Susan Fawcett, 58, was discovered a little further along the coast at Sandsend.