Hancock’s Widow Awarded £11,500

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32234, 28 February 1970, Page 11

Hancock’s Widow Awarded £11,500

(N.Z. PA.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, February 27.

The High Court has awarded the estranged second wife of the late British comedian, Tony Hancock, £11,500 from his £22,000 estate.

With his will, Mr Hancock left a memorandum declaring that he made no provision for his wife, Freda, because, he said, she had deserted him without just Cause. Mr Hancock, an alcoholic, committed suicide in Sydney in June, 1968, a few days after his wife had been granted a divorce in London. But because the decree nisi was not made absolute, the Court ruled, Mr Hancock had a high moral obligation towards his widow for the disruption of her own personal life and her business. Their marriage was described by Mrs Hancock’s

counsel as “short, violent and unhappy.” They parted after seven months. “When an alcoholic genius contacts other persons there is quite often an explosion,” counsel added. “That, is what happened in this case. Mrs Hancock had a nervous breakdown, and it is hot too much to say that the marriage to some extent shattered both her career and her health.” In the will, made after he had separated from his wife, the comedian left everything to his mother, Mrs Lucie Sennett, who died in November of last year. The sole beneficiary of her estate was Mr Hancock’s brother, Roger.