On Wed, 4 Sep 2013 10:27:37 +0100, Tim Powys-Lybbe wrote: > So presumably he knew what he was doing when he signed that will. But > was he literate? > > I wonder what was going on when he signed his will? Had an instruction > been issued from General HQ? Were the sergeants telling the soldiers > what to do? Were they sufficiently shell-shocked to do what they were > told regardless? > > Then these words in that will are a classic. I'm sure I've heard of a > case that went to court because the soldier had merely written > "Everything to Mother". Who was mother? Was she his biological mother? > Or was she his wife, who was generally known as Mother? Was his wife > pregnant and already thus a mother? He was an apprentice printer's compositor finishing his final year when he joined up. So as literate as you or me. I have examples of his hand writing. I've no reasom to doubt she was his biological mother, and the address he gave for her agrees with other information I had already, e.g from his matrriage certificate. I wouldn't have thought they had been married long enough to call one another 'mother' and 'father' anyway especially as their one and only child lived only a few weeks. I have searched birth records from 1915 to 1918 in the hope of finding another birth, but without success. I would have been over the Moon had I found one neaning an ouside chance of finding a living cousin. Roy

On Wed, 4 Sep 2013 15:59:46 +0100, Charlie <plink.2RoyTubb@spamgourmet.com> wrote: >On Wed, 4 Sep 2013 10:27:37 +0100, Tim Powys-Lybbe wrote: > >> So presumably he knew what he was doing when he signed that will. But >> was he literate? >> >> I wonder what was going on when he signed his will? Had an instruction >> been issued from General HQ? Were the sergeants telling the soldiers >> what to do? Were they sufficiently shell-shocked to do what they were >> told regardless? >> >> Then these words in that will are a classic. I'm sure I've heard of a >> case that went to court because the soldier had merely written >> "Everything to Mother". Who was mother? Was she his biological mother? >> Or was she his wife, who was generally known as Mother? >> The shortest English will was the subject of Thorn v. Dickens ([1906] W.N. 54) (indexed by PRFD as Frederick Charles William THORN in 1905/1906) but the testator wasn't AFAICT a soldier :- "All for mother", Charles William THORNE, Streatham, died 17 May 1905; the will being hurriedly drawn up on the day before his death. reported in The Capricornian, Queensland, AUS on 14 Apr 1906 [http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/71975967] "Mother" was indeed his wife Mary Ann :- [https://portal.barweb.com.au/Upload/FCK/Session%204B%20-%20McKenna%20Paper.pdf] (mentioning the case with reference to ambiguity in contracts). The shortest will ever was in similar vein :- ""Vse zene" means "All to wife" in the Czech was the shortest valid will in the world. It was written and dated 19 January 1967 by Herr Karl Tausch of Langen, Hessen, West Germany" [http://www.lawyerment.com/facts/world_records/Judicial/100002.htm] and various other attributions in past years. >> Was his wife >> pregnant and already thus a mother? > >He was an apprentice printer's compositor finishing his final year when he >joined up. So as literate as you or me. I have examples of his hand >writing. > >I've no reasom to doubt she was his biological mother, and the address he >gave for her agrees with other information I had already, e.g from his >matrriage certificate. > >I wouldn't have thought they had been married long enough to call one >another 'mother' and 'father' anyway especially as their one and only child >lived only a few weeks. > >I have searched birth records from 1915 to 1918 in the hope of finding >another birth, but without success. I would have been over the Moon had I >found one neaning an ouside chance of finding a living cousin. > >Roy