On Mon, 02 Sep 2013 15:57:02 +0930, Anne Chambers wrote: > Charlie wrote: > >> My soldier had married my Aunt Mabel in September 1914. At about the same >> time he voluteered for the 13th Battalion of the Essex regiment (West >> Ham).. His will was made out and signed on 9th November 1915 and he left >> everything to his mother, not his young (19 year old) wjfe. This strikes me >> as odd, but I know from other information in the will that it's the right >> man, What do others make of that? He would have had precious little to >> bequeeth. >> > > Perhaps he thought his mother needed the money more, as his wife could go back to her parents if he died. Did > he have younger siblings still dependent and was his mother a widow ? Did war widows get an allowance/some > other sort of payment in WW1 ? He did have younger (and older) siblings. His father was alive when he married in 1914, but his employment, casual dock labourer, was certainly precarious. His wjfe, my aunt, did return to live with her parents for a while, and their only child died early in 1915. Pretty tragic all round. I'm following every lead I can think of regarding my aunt. I didn't even know she existed until I found her on the 1901 census. My father never mentioned her although I know they lived in the same small home until sometime in the 1920s. I found a witness to that, now dead,. some years ago. I could write a book about the small mysteries in that family, Mabel is just one item! Roy