|
George Harold Rossdale Married: 1922 Kate Alberta Woolf | ||||||||
| Dora June Rossdale [CFT #7006] Born: 1922 Died: 2011 |
| |||||||
| b (3rd Qtr) Marylebone, London June Robertson-Rodger assured her niece, Jennifer Watson that a Chinese vase sitting on a shelf in her home would be hers when she died. Indeed she left instructions to this effect in her letter of wishes which accompanied her will. However when her executors (her nephew, Bishop David Rossdale and great-nephew, Charles Smith) had her estate valued it became apparent that the vase was worth around £9 million and would have to be sold in order to pay inheritance tax. Initially Mrs Watson disagreed strenuously but finally had to agree that she could not insist on having the vase as her claim rested on the letter of wishes which are legally only advice not instructions to the executors. When sold to a Chinese collector it was the highest priced Asian artwork sold that year. As a result of the Bishop's sound decision all 31 beneficiaries inherited from the will. The vase, some 20 inches high and decorated with swirling pink chrysanthemums, which once graced Beijing's Forbidden City, was acquired in the 1890s by James Keswick (#916), head of Jardine Matheson, one of Hong Kong's leading 19th century trading companies. June was the daughter of Dr George Harold Rossdale MD (1894-1985) who was the Medical Officer of the Tropical Diseases Clinic of the Ministry of Pensions, and Kate Alberta Woolf (1898-1973). They had married in 1922. |
| |||||||
| 0 Children | ||||||||
To notify corrections or updates to this page, please contact the Webmaster
or return to the Index2 Index1
Thanks