Orla Wates death is her heartbroken family’s second gap-year tragedy
Tributes have been paid to 19-year-old Orla Wates, who was due to start university soon, after she died following a motorbike accident on a mountain road in Vietnam
Tributes have been paid to Orla Wates, from London, who died abroad(Image: Wates Family)
The family of a British teenager killed after a motorbike crash in Vietnam are suffering their second gap-year heartbreak, it has emerged.
Orla Wates, 19, was rushed to hospital following the accident during her gap year in the country, but doctors were unable to save the woman. Orla, whose father is a director of £2.4billion building firm Wates, was travelling on the Ha Giang Loop, a mountain road, when the crash happened.
The collision bears chilling similarities to the death of her cousin William Wates, who was also 19 when he was killed while travelling in Honduras — just weeks before he was due to start university. The adventurous teenagers were members of a construction family dynasty estimated to be worth £597million.
Orla, whose liver, kidneys and corneas were transplanted to patients at the hospital at which she died, was described as “beautiful, independent and very funny, with a sharp wit” by her parents Andy, 56, and Henrietta Wates, 53.
Orla’s dad, Andrew, has expressed his grief
Andy, a director of the Wates construction company, lost his nephew in August 1996. William was shot dead in a remote mountainous region close to the Nicaraguan border. He suffered five gunshot wounds to the heart, head and back, and had been bound by his hands and legs. Travellers’ cheques, credit cards and cash had been stolen, according to the Daily Mail.
William is believed to have been robbed and killed by two Latin American men who had been staying in the room next to his at a hotel in the border town of Danlí, around 40 miles away. He had been seen leaving with them the night before.
At the time, William had been travelling across South and Central America for four months. During his journey, he spent two months volunteering—planting trees in Ecuador and supporting local communities.
The youngest of five brothers, he had been a pupil at Radley College and was taking a gap year before going on to study Ancient History at Nottingham University.
His father, Andrew, was then chairman of Wates Leisure and a director of the family construction firm, Wates Building Group. Andrew Wates, now 85, retired in 2010. A well-known figure in horse racing, his horse Rough Quest won the Grand National just weeks before his son’s death.
After learning of the tragedy, Andrew went ahead with hosting a long-planned garden party at his Surrey estate, concealing the news from hundreds of staff in attendance. He later travelled to Honduras to bring his son’s body home.
In William’s memory, the family established the William Wates Memorial Trust, a charity that has since raised millions of pounds to support disadvantaged children.
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