CURIOUS WILL OF CANON

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 March 1934, Page 11

CURIOUS WILL OF CANON

MEETING “IN THE NEXT LIFE.”

LONDON, February 2. One of the most intimate and lengthy documents ever lodged at Somerset House has just been admitted for probate. It is the will of the Rev. Richard Shiers-Mason, Canon of Gibraltar Cathedral, who died last August. In adidtion to several prophetic warnings as to the troubled times Spain would undergo, the testator makes reference to a disposition of his property so as to avoid a possible source of trouble when he, and his wife meet “in the next life.”

In a codicil, added only three years ago, Canon Shiers-Mason tells of his boatman’s lifelong service, which has gone unrewarded. The will begins as follows: —

“Feeling that my life is very uncertain, and that my beloved wife may have to live many years without my advice, and may be tempted in old age to invest her money unwisely in the troubled times which are coming, I think it wiser to revoke my former will, made in 1886, and to make a new will leaving everything I have to trustees, who will not only look after her interests, but will also carry out what my wife and I have agreed as to the disposal of my property after we have both passed onwards from this life.

“In old age my wife might otherwise have forgotten this agreement, which would' have caused trouble between us when we meet in the next life.”

After directons as to the disposal of his property (which amounted to £5,3,43 in England). Canon ShiersMason deals with the contingency that might arise should there be no issue of a nephew. In that event he directs that his money shall be paid to the Anglican Bishop of Gibraltar, to be u.sed by him to promote the spiritual welfare of the merchant seamen coming into the ports of his diocese. “MY PLUCKY BOATMAN.” Canon Shiers-Mason directed his executors to pay a lump sum of £2O and annuities of £l5 each to Francisco Infante, “my faithful and plucky boatman for 27 years in the boat of the Seamen’s Mission of Gibraltar,” to Isabel Infante, the boatman’s wife, and to her sister, Francisca Perales. The will continues: “In consequence of the exposure in all kinds of weather in an open boat without any protection from our heavy rains, I have had chronic rheumatism and heavy bronchial colds all winter for some years, and my pool’ boatman has chronic bronchitis to such an extent (he is only 52) that he is completely unfit for any hard or exposed work. “I put these facts before the Diocesan Committee, and' asked them to give Infante a ‘ small pension of 10/a week. They refused to do so, to their eternal disgrace and to that of the English Church in the Diocese and in Gibraltar, because the local committee at Gibraltar before whom I put the facts of the case -would not recommend them to do so. “The local committee consists of Dean Warde and three men, who looked at the question from a sharp business point of view and persuaded the Dean to take the same view of the case. (This hard business way is turning working men into Bolshevists in Spain and' other countries). “So the local committee thought a small gratuity of £25 was ‘adequate,’ and ‘met the case’!! They forgot that a Christian Mission ought to be a model employer of labour. “They forgot that the men in the Port Department police boat, after 27 years’ service, would, receive a pension of £2 a week, although their boat has a deck house which protects them from the rain!

“They forgot that the Golf Club is pensioning its Spanish greenkeepers! Some committees (like some companies) have no conscience. But Bishops and Deans are sent to us to keep committees spiritually alive! They failed!

“So it is clear to me that, poor as I am, I must help these three poor folk as well as I can. They are all cripples, and if I live a few years I shall have to pay someone to look after them.”