Edelweiss singer Vince Hill leaves his family and friends a fortune of £6.8 million, including £25,000 for his assistant and housekeeper

Edelweiss singer Vince Hill, who died last year at the age of 89, left his family and friends a fortune of £6.8 million.

Born in Coventry, Hill was known for his velvety singing voice and was also a songwriter and television presenter.

His cover of “Edelweiss,” a beloved classic from “The Sound of Music,” reached number two on the charts in 1967, held that position for 17 weeks, and became a perennial hit among music fans.

Hill’s recently published will shows an estate valued at £6,815,266, which was distributed among his family, friends and various charities.

Hill and his wife Annie lived in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Annie died in 2016, two years after the death of her only son, Athol, who died at the age of 42.

Generous donations from Hill’s estate included £10,000 to the Walsall Ambulance Helicopter, £10,000 to Leukaemia UK – a disease Hill himself battled, £5,000 to Blind Veterans UK and £5,000 to the Macular Disease Society, a charity supporting people with an eye disease from which Hill suffered and which led to his gradual loss of sight.

Hill also left £25,000 to Pauline Buckett, his assistant and housekeeper in his later years, while his sister Valerie received the contents of his HSBC Cash ISA savings account.

The remaining estate was divided among his family and friends, with some portions placed in trust for future generations.

Hill’s career began when he answered an advertisement in Melody Maker seeking a singer for the band of the Royal Corps of Signals.

His audition at the band’s headquarters in Catterick, North Yorkshire, led to a role that enabled him to complete his military service while also performing across Europe and the Middle East.

He later joined two groups, The Four Others and The Raindrops, before his wife encouraged him to pursue a solo career.

He had his first chart hit in 1962 with “The River’s Run Dry” and the following year he narrowly missed out on representing Great Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest.

In the 1970s and 80s, Hill hosted popular television shows including the BBC’s They Sold a Million and The Musical Time Machine, and he even had his own ITV talk show, Gas Street.

His recording of “Edelweiss” remained his most successful release and the defining hit of his career, reaching number 2 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1967 and his album of the same name became a top 30 hit.