ABSTRACT
Crookes’ last will and testament was drawn up in 1915, probably as a revision to an earlier will because of Henry’s death that year. The will was complex because rents from properties in Mornington Road and Princes Street in St Pancras that had been set up in trust by Joseph Crookes in 1856 and 1866 had to be disposed of. Crookes instructed that income from this trust fund that he had inherited from his brothers, Walter and Francis (Frank), was to be split between four of his five surviving children – Alice, Bernard, Walter and Lewis Philip. Monies from the sale of Crookes’ possessions and the estate were to be divided between all five surviving children, one of whom, John William, had emigrated to Canada. The executors, the two sons Bernard and Lewis Philip Crookes, were specifically directed that John was not to have control of his share, but was to be given it at discretion either as a lump sum or in small sums. They also had complete discretion to withdraw it completely and redistribute it among the other four children. Clearly, John was the black sheep of the family. Whether he was forced to emigrate to Canada because of some youthful indiscretion, or as an act of rebellion, we do not know. Canadian sources are silent on his career, though he may have been a local journalist in Winnipeg.1 At his death, which occurred in 1931, Crookes’ executors were instructed to pass any remainder of John’s share to Crookes’ two grandchildren from his deceased son Joseph (who had died in 1902).
