OLD WORK BOX

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 January 1939, Page 9

OLD WORK BOX

PROOF Oh’ IDENTITI. I ONDON. December 17. Over the teacups at her little home in Greylands Road, Pecidiam, b.E., Mrs Ellen Smith, dark-haired 55-year-old wife of a road ™dver,told a reporter the story of a 100-yearold engraved needlework box which had hplned her to win a ciaim m the Chancery Division to her fathers £5OOO estate. It is a simple little mahogany box, engraved with her grandmothers name. It was given to her by th. mother she had not seen since she was 11.

I Mrs Smith looked tired after a. day and a half’s legal argument before Mr Justice Bennett, in which cousins and other relatives had contested Her., next-of-kin claim—that she was tho ; daughter and only child of Mr Jul■ian "White, a retired Brighton grocer, I who died intestate on January 20, . '1936, and his wife, Mrs Fanny White,, who died on November 6, 1935. ! As proof of her parentage she relied on the box given to her in those days bv her "mother.” and engraved with the name “Mary Ann Steer’—the. maiden name of Mrs White’s mother. Her claim satisfied Mr Justice Ben- ( licit. ! -f Lad ae-. o! see.n my father,' Mrs i Smith told the reporter. “Someaow ■he. and my mother had dnfßd apar-. Lt had no idea where he men Unlit I I icmi in u- newspaper soon inter uk death that a- firm ot ’ Brighton soliciLcrs was trying to trace an unknown 1 relative- who had never set toot in i his home. “The solicitors showed me a photograph album, and at oiicc I picked < iii. m\ mother's picture. I could remember her distinctly. I bad grown . so much like her. “Then I found the needlework box ■ in ovr shed. The name tallied with the name on the solicitor’s papers. ' “Now don’t ask me what I’m going to do with the estate. It is said to ho worth £5OOO, but 1 haven’t a penny ; of it yet. But you can be sure it 1 won't make any difference to us. My 1 husband and I are quite comfortable-.’'