Death

Fred Lucas died in 1932 a few months before his 90th birthday.   About 1925 he left the Brighton area and moved to Newbury, Berkshire, the area his wife was originally from.   They lived  at Speen Court, Newbury. Also in the area were other relatives of his wife. [List them and sort this out, because the Simpsons had a long association with Berkshire/Wiltshire].

Fred Lucas was buried at Shaw Church, Newbury. [Add some details here].

Will

His will is rather straightforward with no huge surprises, although on second or third reading some observations come to note.

The very first page is the summary of the probate with a few interesting bits.  His daughter Winifred renounced probate.  Immediately one wonders what was happening here.  Why did she want to do this?  Had there been some family disagreement or was there some other reason?   Renouncing the task of probating would not necessarily mean she refused proceeds of the distribution of the estate.  That information isn’t given.

The two remaining executors were his widow, Gertrude Jane (Simpson) Lucas and Cecil Simpson, Gertrude’s older brother who was a solicitor with H. M. Customs and Excise.  But Fred himself had been a solicitor and was partners with his brother Edgar, also a practising solicitor.   Edgar was not named as an executor.   I suppose this could have been simply because Edgar himself was getting on, and it is more practical to name a younger person as an executor.

His Estate

Frederick William Lucas died some time in 1932, and the details of his estate are published in The Times, Aug 5, 1932, p.13e. His personalty was valued at [pounds] 12,262, and the gross value of the estate was valued at [pounds] 23,939. No doubt some of this money somehow came from his wife’s side of the family, but it is still a not inconsiderable amount of money, so what happened to it all?   So far, I haven’t got the will or death duty information.