7 of strangest will requests of all time in the UK

Usually, a will is a way to give meaningful gifts to family members and friends, and some have stretched the regular interpretation of this.

Figures throughout history have used their will in some surprising ways including preventing their sons from growing facial hair and leaving behind money to pay off the national debt.

Here are some of the most unique requests left in wills in the UK, as found by the wills and probate solicitors at Beecham Peacock.

7 of the strangest requests left in wills in the UK

A donation to clear the national debt

A huge sum of £500,000 was left to clear the national debt back in 1928 (Image: PA)

Back in 1928, an anonymous donor left £500,000 to Britain with the specific instruction that it was not to be used until it was enough to clear the entire national debt.

According to the Bank Of England Inflation Calculator, £500,000 in 1928 would now be worth around £25.8 million.

However, because national debt is now above £2 trillion the money is unlikely to be used anytime soon.

A million bulbs

Once a Devon resident, local man Keith Owen migrated to Canada, becoming a successful investment banker.

On a trip back home to visit relatives in Sidmouth, he discovered that he had a terminal illness and that he had just a few weeks left to live.

He decided to donate his fortune to the Sid Vale Association in his will with the stipulation that some of it was to be spent on one million flowering bulbs.

His will specifies that the capital should not be used, but the interest it gathers should be spent on maintaining the town.

That interest equates to around £125,000 a year so quite a tidy sum all things considered.

The 'anti-moustache' clause

Some people might leave a few stipulations for people to claim inheritance money in their will. but this might be one of the oddest.

Upon his death in 1862, eccentric English property investor Henry Budd left his fortune, including the Twickenham Park estate, to his surviving sons, William and Edward.

Henry Budd was not a fan of moustaches it seems (Image: Getty Images)

William and Edward were bestowed with a few responsibilities, including the maintenance of the family mausoleum.

Alongside this Budd also added that should either of his sons grow a moustache, they’d be forced to forfeit a significant proportion of their inheritance.

A very strange request indeed, and it gives question as to if Budd had a vendetta against facial hair as a whole?

A boozy weekend away

The 67-year-old Roger Brown sadly passed away due to prostate cancer in 2013 and left an amount of £3,500 to seven of his closest friends.

This was with the stipulation that they would use it to go for a boozy weekend away to a European city.

As reported by The Express, one of his friends Roger Rees, 69, said: "We would like to formally apologise to Roger's two sons, Sam and Jack for taking away some of their inheritance. 

“We spent most of it on beer - the rest we wasted.“ 

Most of the money left to Roger's friends was spent on beer (Image: Canva)

Shakespeare’s second-best bed

The will of famed British playwright William Shakespeare is a notorious case of a strange stipulation as he left his wife Anne Hathaway his “second-best bed”.

It was a very odd snub from beyond the grave, with most of his estate going to his daughter Susana.

Stuffed with hay

The English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was embalmed, stuffed with hay, dressed, and placed in a chair as per his will's instructions.

His body is kept on public display in a glass case at the main entrance of the UCL Student Centre.

A Rotten Old Pig

A bootmaker from Coventry called Albert Orton left just a single farthing to his wife when he died aged 70 in 1888.

The reason for this snub was apparently because he was offended at his wife calling him a 'rotten old pig' because he frequently broke wind.