{"id":10931,"date":"2015-04-03T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T10:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=10931"},"modified":"2015-04-03T06:00:38","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T10:00:38","slug":"soldiers-wills-on-odd-scraps-in-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/soldiers-wills-on-odd-scraps-in-1915\/","title":{"rendered":"SOLDIERS\u2019 WILLS ON ODD SCRAPS IN 1915"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, April 3, 1915<\/i><\/p>\n

In rest billets\u00a0northern outskirts of\u00a0Estaires<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: Nothing\u00a0No details recorded\u00a0<\/em>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"03<\/a>THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0\u201cLondon.\u00a0 Since the war the work of the department at Somerset House where wills can be proved personally by executors without the assistance of lawyers has been nearly trebled.\u00a0 Over sixty wills a day are proved there.\u00a0 The great majority are the wills of soldiers killed in action.<\/p>\n

These are sometimes a puzzle to the officials.\u00a0 They are written on all sorts of queer pieces of paper, often on the back of the envelope of a letter received from home just before the dead man went under fire, and found in his tunic afterwards.<\/p>\n

The widows receive these wills and are generally the people who have come to prove them.\u00a0 The use of the department is not confined to the executors of small legacies.\u00a0 This year a department record was established by proof of a will for over a million pounds.\u00a0 Its three executors took their turn with the poor folk, filled in the application form, and proved the will without the help of a solicitor.\u00a0 The fees payable to the department in this case were only about $500.\u00a0 The charge for proving wills is according to the amount of money involved.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian soldiers didn\u2019t have to use odd scraps of paper to write a will. \u201cThe final pages of the Canadian Army Pay Book carried by all soldiers [but not officers]* contained a sample will, along with instructions on the process for writing both a \u2018formal\u2019 and a \u2018military\u2019 will.\u00a0 A \u2018formal\u2019 will dealt with the soldier’s property and possessions at home and was to be completed using an appropriate form in the presence of two witnesses and a \u2018testator,\u2019 likely a commanding officer.\u00a0 A \u2018military will\u2019 referred to a soldier’s personal effects, including any wages owed at the time of death.\u00a0 The soldier\u2019s pay book would usually \u00a0have a note \u00a0that on a certain date he had completed a \u2018Military Will\u2019 that was forwarded to the \u2018Officer, i\/c Estates Branch\u2019 in Canada for safekeeping.<\/em>\u201d \u00a0\u00a0[3]<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

* Note:\u00a0 Canadian Officers did not carry pay books because they were required to open bank accounts in London into which their pay was credited.<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 War Diary, 14th<\/sup> Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment<\/em>, April 3, 1915.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa,\u00a0http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089714.jpg<\/a><\/pre>\n
[2]\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cSoldiers\u2019 Wills On Odd Scraps,\u201d The Citizen<\/em>, Ottawa, Ontario, Friday, April 2, 1915, pg. 6, col. 4.<\/pre>\n
[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bruce F. MacDonald; extracted from: http:\/\/guysboroughgreatwarveterans.blogspot.ca\/2011\/12\/soldiers-wage.html<\/a><\/pre>\n
[4]\u00a0\u00a0 Canadian Pay Book for use on Active Service, Army Book 64<\/em> - 2 September 1918\u00a0 (pay book 15 x 10 cm),\u00a0William Harris fonds (Harris,William-CBDOC-2(g);\u00a0 New Brunswick Museum,\u00a0<\/span>http:\/\/website.nbm-mnb.ca\/MOP\/english\/ww1\/dosearch.asp?browse=36&results=10&all=true<\/a><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday, April 3, 1915 In rest billets\u00a0northern outskirts of\u00a0Estaires The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: Nothing\u00a0No details recorded\u00a0[1] THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0\u201cLondon.\u00a0 Since the war the work<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-day-in-rmr-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}