BOY'S VAST FORTUNE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOY'S VAST FORTUNE

LEGACY OF £365,000 GRANDMOTHER'S WEALTH " WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?" lan Irvine Boswell, a fifteen-year-old Winchester College boy, could spend £IOOO a day for a whole year. He has just inherited £365,000. " I have not the faintest idea what I shall do with tho money," he said. Wireless sets and riding are far more interesting to him at tho moment than wealth. Fair-haired lan Boswell sat in a panelled drawing room at Crawley Grange at Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, on December 10 reading a lawyer's letter with a puzzled frown. " What does it all mean?" he inquired as he struggled through the legal phraseology. •The letter told the boy that he had become a Croesus. He had inherited £365,0C0 under the will of his grandmother, Mrs. Ellen Elizabeth Boswell, the late owner of Crawley Grange, who died on October 29. Lan laid down the letter and disappeared to his " den." Five minutes later he was entirely absorbed in a new wireless set which he was making, and which he hoped to finish by the New Year. The inheritance of a fortune means far less to this boy now than the loss of his grandmother. Ho was in evening dress when he was seen by a correspondent and he looked far older than

he is when he produced a cigarette case. "My grandmother was really 1 mother ' to me," the lad said. " Both my parents died when I was very vonng. My father, C'orrie Boswell, was killed while fighting in Palestine during tho war. fever since 1 can remember 1 have lived with my grandmother here at Crawley Grange. I do not remember my father and mother at all. " I have just come home from school to-day for the holidays. It will be a rather strange Christmas without grandmother. Several months ago I was told that I was to receive the money. 1 have not tliG faintest idea what I shall do with it. You see, 1 shall be at school for several years yet. It is too early to decide, anyway." Then lie talked to me about wireless. His eyes lit up, for it is his all-absorb-ing hobby. Lan was eager to talk, too, about the old grange. " Where we are sitting now is Tudor, of the time of Cardinal Wolsev," he said. " Other portions of the house were added by my grandmother. " I love this old place with its associations. Everyhero I walk reminds me of my grandmother. Yes, I was very fond of her. Now that I am on holi-

days I hope to spend a lot of time making my new wireless set. But I shall do <1 bit of riding as well." Mrs. Boswell left estate to the gross value of £907,33:3, with net personalty £'907,676. The death duties will amount to £380,000. Probate of her will, dated July 20, 1902, has been granted to her daughter, Mrs. Veronica Hamilton, of Kozelle, Ayr. Mrs. Boswell's late husband, John lrvino Boswell, was a doctor.