CHANGE OF NAME

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 May 1931, Page 8

CHANGE OF NAME

CONDITIONS OF A WILL. ■" ■■■■■'■ A woman of 40 engaged to a man over 80; the death of the man; a will; a fortune of nearly £50,000 for the woman, *on conditions— This, in brief, is the story of an announcement in a recent issue of the London Gazette, showing. that romances are sometimes hidden in one of the most business-like publications in the world.

- The Gazette announced permission to the woman to Change her name to that of her dead fiance, and ! so- proved the fulfilment of the conditions of the will.

The King, stated the Gazette, had granted to Dorothy Ethel Green, some time of Thornbridge Hall( Derby, spinster, “his Royal license and authority that she may take and henceforth use the surname of Marples, in lieu of that of Green, and that she may bear the arms, badge, and; motto of Marples, in lieu of her own family arms.”

The Marples mentioned was Mr George Jobson Marples, a barrister, of Thornbridge Hall, Derbyshire, who died on Christmas Eve, 1929, at the age of 84, shortly after his engagement to Miss Green was announced. Mr Marples left the bulk of his fortune of £49,160, with net personality £13,108, in trust to his fiancee, so lon 5 as she remained a spinster, a<id on condition that, within a yeai' from becoming entitled to the property, she should take and assume the surname and arms, badge and motto of the family of Marples. In an interview last August, MissGreen said that she was 42, and had' been engaged to Mr Marples for five years. She also said that she had no intention of marrying.