STRANGE WILLS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21784, 14 October 1940, Page 4

STRANGE WILLS

SOLDIER WROTE ON GIRL’S PICTURE Among the many strange wills stored at Somerset House. Landon, are a number of curiosities due to wars, for wills of sailors, soldiers and airmen killed on active service are privileged in various respects. One is written on the back of a photograph of a girl to whom the soldier left everything. The smallest will on record was made by a sailor who was killed at Jutland. It is clearly scratched on the back of his brass identity disc, and consists of thirty words, together with his signature and those of two mates who witnessed it. It was not discovered for some years, until one day the sailor’s widow noticed marks on the back and, examining it under a miscroscope, found that it was a will leaving everything to her. Another sailor wrote his will on an eggshell. One of the Somerset House wills was made by a Welsh hermit who chalked his Will on the door of his hut. This was accepted for probate, and the door is now preserved. There are others written on all sorts of odds and ends on old bills, on a piece of wallpaper, on paper bags, and even on collars and other articles of clothing. The longest will was admitted in 1925, and takes over 95,000 words to dispose of £20,583. Fortunately for the authorities, shorter wills are more common, and, in contrast to the above, Elias Meyer disposed of £670,000 in a will o£ only 125 words.