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Simon Parry

Friends and relatives have paid warm tribute to  a Hong Kong man - the father of a British television star - who took his own life as he struggled to cope with  financial troubles and the breakdown of his marriage.
Robin Hull,  55, whose daughter, Francesca,  found fame in the hit series Made in Chelsea,  which follows the lives of young socialites in West London, was  found hanged in his flat in Wan Chai weeks after his estranged second wife filed for divorce.
He was last seen drinking at the Old China Hand  pub on the night of November 4 before going back to the flat where he lived alone and hanging himself in a closet.
Hull's body was found when his 28-year-old Indonesian girlfriend arrived the following afternoon and saw a piece of white paper with the word 'Suicide' on it taped on the security grill of his flat door.
She alerted police, who entered the flat and  found him dead.  A note left on the kitchen table  read: 'I have taken my own life. I am sorry for the pain I have caused you.'
News of Hull's suicide only emerged when his 25-year-old daughter, known as Cheska,  issued a statement earlier this month saying: 'I am devastated to have lost my father but I am trying to get on with my life.'
A close Hong Kong friend of Hull who asked not to be named  said Hull had largely cut himself off from his family in Britain but was immensely proud of Cheska. 
Hull was particularly pleased by a report in September linking her to Britain's Prince Harry after they reportedly flirted in a nightclub,  the friend said.
 'He didn't really talk a lot about his family,'  he said. 'It was only in the last three to six months that he really talked more about it and said, 'Wow, my daughter is a star.' 
'He was very proud and showed pictures of her on Facebook and other sites. When she was spotted speaking to Prince Harry in a club and exchanging numbers with him, he got a big kick out of that. He was proud of the fact she was doing so well.'
Hull, born in Hong Kong  to a British army officer, had been out of work for  about two years after a globetrotting 30-year career in banking with companies including Standard Chartered.
Cheska was born in Bangkok to his first wife, Karen. Sons Jeffrey and Sebastian, aged 19 and 16, were born to  his second wife, Catherine, in New York.
'There were financial problems,' the friend said. 'He had been out of work for some time and  didn't let people know. When they asked him what he was doing, he would say, 'I'm doing some consulting' or 'I'm working from home'. I wouldn't say he was ashamed, but he was very private about his own circumstances.'
Hull stayed in Hong Kong in the hope of finding work. 
'He loved Hong Kong and  had lots of friends, and he loved the social life.  I guess he hoped things would pick up and get better, and it didn't quite go the way he planned,'  the friend said. 'Only a handful of his close friends knew his real situation. Financially he was quite strapped. 
'But Hong Kong can be a cruel place. You can fall pretty far pretty fast. It's not a cheap place to live by any means.
'I learned from his wife afterwards she had filed for divorce two to three weeks prior to his death. She wanted to get on with her life and she had issued him with some papers. 
'He didn't tell me about it. I suppose that also could have been weighing on him as well.'
On the night of his death, Hull drank in the Old China Hand  before heading home at around midnight in a state fellow drinkers later described as 'fairly inebriated'.
The suicide note he left was not addressed to anyone but appeared to be for his girlfriend, a live-in domestic helper for a local family.
He had given her a key to his flat, and  probably left the note on the security grill to prevent her  finding his body.
Another expatriate friend, who also asked not to be named, said: 'The bizarre thing was he posted up pictures on Facebook of Cheska and the boys, and then literally days later, he killed himself. It was the first time he'd mentioned Cheska and her television work so publicly. A few of us knew, but he respected her privacy and didn't make a big deal of it.'
Hull's brother Steve said in a eulogy at a memorial service in Britain: 'Rob was immensely proud of his children, though they may not have always realised it, and would readily talk about and show pictures of them to others.
'I have the feeling that, often lacking real contentment, he was always seeking that elusive something but was rarely able to find it.'
Brenda Yu Pik-kwan, a spokeswoman for the judiciary, said a decision had been made by a coroner not to hold an inquest.



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