HC Deb 04 September 1939 vol 351 cc430-2

Order for Second Reading read.

6.13 p.m.

Mr. Shakespeare

I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

This is also a Bill which has passed through all its stages in another place. It confers upon the naval rating and the Royal Marine the power to make a verbal or an informal will, and establishes the right of the Admiralty to accept such will as a valid one. For some strange reason this right, which has been possessed by a merchant seaman and by a soldier ever since 1837, was removed from the sailor in 1865. In the last War it was found that a man engaged upon active service might want to make a will at a moment's notice, and it is provided that a will, though made under informal circumstances, shall be a valid document in law and that the Admiralty shall treat it as such. A short Measure on those lines was passed then.

6.14 p.m.

Mr. Ammon

In supporting the Bill I should like to ask what is meant by a "verbal will." Does the hon. Gentleman mean something said to somebody without there being any witnesses? How can anyone prove anything like that? I can understand that a man could write a will to which there was no witness, or dictate one, but a verbal will means surely that there has been no record of any sort. Since the Bill passed in the last War there have been alterations in the Common Law with regard to wills. For instance, a man cannot will the whole of his estate away from his wife. Am I right in saying that this Bill is concerned only with that part of the man's estate which comes to him from the service in which he is serving and has no relation to any other estate he may hold?

Mr. Shakespeare

Of course, this only relates to "naval assets" as defined in Clause 2. On the first point, the reference to a verbal will means that a will made by a sailor is valid if it is taken down by two witnesses who hear it and put into writing. Equally, if he writes a letter to his sweetheart or wife leaving her his money, even though there are no witnesses, that letter is taken to be a valid will.

Mr. Ammon

If the man makes a statement and someone else writes it down, that is what is meant by the word "verbal."

Question, "That the Bill be now read a Second time," put, and agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Resolved, "That this House will immediately resolve itself into the Committee on the Bill."—[Captain McEwen.]

Bill accordingly considered in Committee; reported, without Amendment; read the Third time, and passed, without Amendment.