Testator's World Of Fantasy

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31381, 29 May 1967, Page 10

Testator's World Of Fantasy

(N.Z. Press Association) N. PLYMOUTH, May 26. Stanley Reid Amies Wood lived in a fantasy which included a being part goddess and part young virgin, who in the one character dominated him and in the other attracted him, said Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court in New Plymouth yesterday.

Mr Wood, formerly of Inglewood, died in New Plymouth in 1962 at the age of 83.

His Honour, said Mr Wood's 1959 will was the product of an unsound mind.

He refused the Public Trustee’s application for probate of the will in solemn form, but granted probate in solemn form of a 1961 codicil to the will. Reference in the codicil to Mr Wood’s house is to be deleted. The will and codicil concern stocks and shares worth about £28,000 net, and Mr Wood’s house and land at Ngaio street, Inglewood. The will gives a life interest in the estate to Mrs Patricia Rae Lowe, with a gift of capital on her death to the vicar of the Church of England, Inglewood, for the erection of a carillon of bells and the church’s general purposes.

The codicil’s effect is to make a bequest of shares to Mrs Lowe and her brother, Michael Lamb, in equal parts, and to dispose of Mr Wood’s Ngaio street house. Most Eccentric

In his judgement yesterday his Honour said that Mr Wood’s eccentricity was of such an extreme kind and so pervasive that he was satisfied it stemmed from some disease of the brain, rather than some quirk of character.

“At all times within the recollection of witnesses, Mr Wood affected a style of dress which was most extraordinary,’’ said his Honour. “Taken In conjunction with the other peculiarities which he displayed, I am confronted by the startling similarity of his costume to that of the gallant of Elizabethan times. “The beret worn by Mr Wood corresponds with the flat bonnet, the cape with the

cloak, the extremely short trousers in a sort of caricature way with the trousers and hose worn in Elizabethan days, and the sandshoes finish off the commonly accepted picture. “If a lad of 10 or so were tempted to dress himself up as a Tudor gallant, that might very vfell be the way he would go about it. “Not Masquerade” "But this was not just a masquerade. I am satisfied that this costume represented a significant facet of the fantasy in which he lived. In his own eyes he was that sort of person. ‘The fantasy remained generally the same, although there was some development of it over the later years,” said his Honour. “It led the testator from time to time to identify a girl, usually 13 or 14 years old, with this fantasy of a goddessbride. The person identified retained in his mind a dominance which I am satisfied he was powerless to resist and which was quite independent of any action on her part.” This dominance, said, his Honour, had nothing to do with Mr Wood’s acquaintance with girls and compelled him, when he made a will, to make the girl the central beneficiary. Caution Shown His Honour said that Mr Wood in his will showed caution to exclude not only his relatives in England—with whom he had no contact for about 40 years—but also his very few friends in Inglewood.

Mr Wood's compulsive disease of the mind allowed him no scope for thought of anyone but the girl whom he identified with his fantasy goddess-bride.

, However, with the codicil different considerations applied. The beneficiaries included Mr Lamb as well as his sister. Mr Lamb helped Mr Wood considerably. “This further fantasy was of the existence of a being, part goddess and part young virgin, who in the one character dominated him and in the other attracted him,” said his Honour.

“By 1927 the fantasy was firmly established. As the yeans wore on, it would appear from the written expressions that the goddess aspect tended to become more pronounced and the brideelect aspect Of the young virgin to become less important, and become rather a confused wish merely that the fantasy person should always be with him. “From 1930 onwards, the dominant expression of his writings and of his willmaking is of his compulsive obsession with this fantasy,” said his Honour.

“I come to that conclusion partly because of the similarity of the apparel in a rough sort of way, and partly because of the extravagance of the language used by him, not merely in writing to the several young ladies with whom he corresponded, but also in writing to other people such as the Magistrate, Mr Hartley. “The extravagant form of expression is usually more relevant to Tudor England than Georgian and Elizabethan New Zealand. “I am satisfied that dominating and pervading the whole character of the late Mr Wood was a further fantasy—or perhaps everything was part of one fantasy. “This cuts clearly across the pattern of the other testamentary documents from 1930-59,” said his Honour. Another Person “For this first time another individual is given a share of the property—an individual whose choice must strike one as being most appropriate." His Honour said the codicil showed signs that Mr Wood’s mental faculties were deteriorating. There was also an inference that the fantasy had relaxed its grip. It could be said that Bae Lamb (whose married name was Rae Lowe) was represented in the codicil not as the fantasy figure but as the companion of the young man who had helped Mr Wood so much. His Honour said’ he believed Mr Wood intended that the house should go to Mr Lamb. But he was not satisfied that the reference to the house was not inserted after Mr Wood signed the document. Nevertheless, he was sure Mr Lamb was an honest and | truthful witness.