A FORTUNE IN SPAIN

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22004, 30 January 1937, Page 4

A FORTUNE IN SPAIN

DUNEDIN MAN MAY CLAIM SHARE IN WILL

BEQUEST MADE BY DYING SOLDIER

[THE PRESS Special Service.]

DUNEDIN, January 29.

As a result of the belated translation of a will made In a Spanish hospital in 1921, steps may be taken to prove the claim of Mr J. H. Goughian, a Dunedin tobacconist, to a share in an estate that was reported at that time to be worth more than £30,000. The facts, so far as it has been possible to ascertain them, are that Mr Enrique de Fonseca Goughian, who was an uncle of Mr J. H. Goughian and was formerly a member of the famous English regiment known as The Buffs, went to Spain and became a naturalised Spanish citizen. In 1921 he became involved in a rebellion and was severely wounded. Probably his part in the rising would have resulted in the death sentence had he been in a condition that would have enabled him to face a courtmartial. but death from his wounds intervened while he was in the Hospital of San Juan de Dios in Madrid. ‘While he was in hospital he was befriended by Don George Pena, a prison chaplain, whom he named as the executor of a will which he made in the hospital shortly before his death. The will provided that his daughter, Anna de Fonseca, then a minor, should bo his heiress and that her guardian should be “Don” J. H. Goughian, his nearest relative. The will made a gift of one-fourth of all the testator’s goods to his kinsman, Goughian, on the express condition that he protected the daughter and afforded her such material assistance as the executor might require.

Mr J. H. Goughian was advised by his niece of the death of his uncle, and subsequently he received a letter from Don George Pena, asking him whether he was prepared to accept the responsibilities of guardianship. He is at present unaware of the whereabouts of his niece or of the extent to which the situation may have been changed by the present revolution in Spain.