STRANGE WARTIME WILLS

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1931, Page 9

STRANGE WARTIME WILLS

SOLDIERS’ UNSIGNED NOTES.

GRANTING OF PROBATE.

Many and varied were the wills made by soldiers on active service during the war. tn ordinary times, these documents, some of them the very antithesis of what a will should be, would not have, the remotest chance of being admitted to probate, but the laws pertaining. to wills made provisions for soldiers and sailors on active service.

One of these unusual wills was accepted by the Supreme Court in Wellington recently. It was merely a letter, saying that a soldier’s father would fix his affairs and asking the father to divide his property equally among a family of four. Discussing the position, a Christchurch barrister who had much legal experience while on active service, said that every New Zealand soldier was ordered to make his will on a form provided in his pay book. However, this will could be altered at any time, for it was the last document, preceding death, tliat counted for anything. In the Wellington case, the letter was probably written after the will was made in the pay-book. The -law provided that a soldier or sailor on active service could make a will without the necessity of having it witnessed, added the lawyer. i’hero had been , cases of men who had made their wills on identification, discs; jn another case the will had been carved on a piece of wood. One will that had been recognised in England consisted of notes,' written in pencil in a rough book, and unsigned. This was made by a sailor; but was admitted on evidence of handwriting. Many of those who were ordered to make their wills in Trentham did not take the order seriously. They knew that they had to comply with the instruction, but entries such as: “All to Lizzie,” and “Spend it on beer” were common:

In a number of these cases it was not until the. men were actually on active service that they realised the necessity of making a will. ’ Their wills then took the form of letters in a number of cases and these were admitted to probate, irrespective of the fact that they had not been witnessed. Others, of course, went to the trouble of having proper wills prepared while in England.

Immediately after the war some famous will cases were heard in England, especially in instances where large sums of money were involvedOne English soldier, who was worth half a million in money when he died, left a brief note of thirteen words. This was accepted by the courts, although.it had' not ben witnessed and did not comply with the ordinary rules pertaining to wills.