HOUSTON ESTATE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1927, Page 9

HOUSTON ESTATE

QUESTION OF DEATH DUTIES

(United Press Association.—Copyright.i (Received 29th July, 8 a.m.)

LONDON, 28th July. lady Houston, widow of the late Sir Robert Houston, has telegraphed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer that she desires, as an act of grace, to present the Government with her share of the death duties on her husband's estate, at the same time affirming that it was a mistake to assume that the fortune was made in England. The bulk was made in South America. Moreover, there was no denying the fact that her husband was domiciled in Jersey. The telegram follows the receipt of a statement in Parliament, that the inland revenue claim (which, it is understood, was being contested on the ground of domicile) was being pressed. Sir Robert Houston left seven millions. The duties are estimated at approximately £3,000,000.'

The final agreement in connection with the will of the lato Sir Robert Houston, which bad been the subject of endless litigation, including an attempt to prove that Lady Houston was insane, was arrived at in November of last year. It was then agroed by Lady Houston and Mr. G. H. Appleton, the chief beneficiaries under the will, that £50,000 should be given to each of five relatives of the late baronet, who made a claim on the estate. The beneficiaries under the agreement were Mr. 0. 11. S. Skinner, a great-nephow, and his four married aunts. Two of the aunts live in Vancouver, and the other two in Cheshire, England. It is a windfall for Mr. Skinner, who is 33 years old, and has a wife and two children. Ho was out of employment for three years, and only obtained work in January of last year as a clerk in a printing works at Liverpool. Sir Robert Houston „ied on 15th April of last year. He made his vast fortune as a shipowner, being head of the Houston line of steamers trading out of Liverpool. Sir Robert represented West Toxteth (Liverpool) in the House of Commons as a Conservative from 1892 to 1924, when he retired and was succeeded by a Labour politician, Mr. J. Gibbins, who still holds the seat.