SOLDIER’S SPOKEN WILL.

Gisborne Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6020, 28 February 1921, Page 3

SOLDIER’S SPOKEN WILL.

PROBATE GRANTED BY MR JUSTICE CHAPMAN.

Probate of a will which consisted not of a document but of words spoken by tlie deceased, was granted by Mr Justice Chapman in the Supreme Court, Wellington, last week. The testator was Francis William Desmond, a member of the Expeditionary Force. "Before leaving for foreign service, and when on his final leave, he said to his fiancee, May Booth: ‘May, take these papers and keep them. If 1 d<> not come back you will know wliat money I have. Before I leave, New Zealand I will make a will in my paybook in your favor, and leave all to you.' When saying this ho gave the girl his Post Office Savings Bank passbook, and a life insurance policy on his own life. He was killed in action, in France, and bis pay-book was never recovered. In a letter he. wrote before leaving, lie said: Will you be surprised to bear that I have claimed you as my next-of-kin { If I have taken such a liberty, will von be angry? I have, entered you as slide and please don’t blame me, May; Whose name could I have used, anyhow? “I am satisfied,” said His Honor, “that the words deposed to were used, and passages in the letter clearly show that the deceased was sincerely attached to the girl, and meant, lo do whatever he could do in her interests. The onlv question is whether those words are testatory. I think that they should be so regarded. We <lo non know whether the payboolc will w»v ever made. Assuming that te nns not, I do not think that the omission would affect, the matter. If the testator had met his death when returning to camp we should have had the expression he used at parting, coupled with the very important act of delivering the documents of the title to the "ill as showing an intention which” according to the language used, and the circumstances, was meant, to operate there and then. • • The words . . could not be plainer than they are.”