SOLDIER’S SPOKEN WILL

Otago Witness, Issue 3495, 1 March 1921, Page 43

SOLDIER’S SPOKEN WILL

PROBATE GRANTED BY MR JUSTICE CHAPMAN. Probate of a wid which consisted not of a document but of words spoken by tho deceased was granted by Mr Justice Chapman in the Supreme Court in Wellington host week. iho testator was Francis William Desmond, a member of the Expeditionary Force. “Before leaving for foreign service, and when on his final leave, he said i to his fiancee, May Booth: ‘May, take , these papers and keep them. If 1 do not come back you will know what money I , have. Before I leave New Zealand I will make a will in my payment book in your favour, and leave all to you.’. B lieu say- ! ing 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 his payboQk . was never recovered. In a letter he wrote before leaving, he said: ‘Will you be surj prised to hear that I have claimed you as my next-of-kin? If 1 have taken such a j liberty, will you be angry? I have entered s you as such, and please don t blame me, May. Whose name could 1 have used t anyhow?’ j “I am satisfied,” said bis Honor, that a the words depos’d to were used, and passages in the letter clearly show that tho n deceased was sincerely attached to the girl, if and meant to do whatever he could do in s her interest. The only question is whether those words are testat.ory. I think that they t should be so regarded. Wo do not know e whether the paybook will was ever made. I Assuming that it was not, T do not think ’s that tho omission v.-ou’d affect the matter. 1 If the testator had met his death when ir returning to camp we should have had the expression he used at parting, coupled i with the very important act of delivering u the documents of title to the girl as ghow;e ing an intention which, according to the t. language used, and the circumstances, Was io meant to operate there and then. . . The s- words . . . could not he plainer than