Adult twins whose bodies were found at the white cliffs of Dover on New Year’s Day had rucksacks containing the ashes of their dead parents, an inquest has heard.

A coroner said Muriel and Bernard Burgess, 59, had been struggling to come to terms with their parents’ deaths, particularly that of their mother in 2014.

The siblings fell more than 60 metres (200ft) in an area known as Langdon Cliffs in Dover, Kent, and were found by rescue teams searching for the Gulf war veteran Scott Enion, 45, whose body was also recovered.

One rucksack recovered near the twins contained ashes labelled with their mother’s name, and a second rucksack had their father’s ashes inside.

The inquest in Maidstone, Kent, into all three deaths heard on Tuesday that the Burgesses were recluses who lived together in a static caravan. They were single and had no children.

DS Stuart Ward, of Kent police, said the twins’ parents were also called Bernard and Muriel. Bernard Burgess senior died in 1984 and his wife died 30 years later.

The senior coroner Patricia Harding said that in September last year the twins had attended a GP consultation to discuss their low mood since their mother’s death.

Both were unemployed, struggled financially and had sold the family home in north Wales to buy a caravan together at Orchard Park in the village of Elton, Cheshire.

For three months last year, the brother and sister disappeared and went into arrears on their rent, according to the caravan park manager.

DS Ward said: “They returned and said that they [had gone] walking somewhere in the UK.”

On Christmas Day, police were called to a Dover clifftop after Bernard Burgess was spotted by a concerned passer-by sheltering beside a large rock.

Muriel Burgess told police they had travelled to Dover to do some walking over the Christmas period, and the officer reported no concern for them.

Ward said there was no indication that they had gone to scatter their parents’ ashes.

Recording an open verdict for both twins, Harding said: “The evidence doesn’t disclose to the required standard of proof whether there was an intention by them to take their own lives or [it] was indeed simply a tragic accident.”

In the case of Enion, of Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, Harding recorded a conclusion of suicide after hearing that CCTV footage captured a figure jumping from the cliffs.

The inquest heard Enion had served in the army from 1988 to 1996, and was deployed during the first Gulf war in January 1991.

Ward said: “He had spoken in the past that he had been bullied in the army due to his racial background and he had considered suicide.”

Enion also felt he suffered from Gulf war syndrome, which culminated in health problems including fatigue and headaches. He had witnessed comrades being killed after coming under “friendly fire”.

However, his suicidal thoughts were described as historical and he had last been seen by his GP on 13 October 2016 for a headache. No relatives of either Enion or the Burgess twins attended the inquest.