The front page of the August 13 1952 edition of the Toronto Daily Star contained a fascinating article about a lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Army who was left $250,000 in his aunt’s will, provided he changed his surname.
Here’s the picture of the late aunt, the home she lived in, and Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Murray Dalziel McNaughton, who was being asked to change his surname to Leslie (his aunt’s surname).
There was also an article that went into more detail.
Naturally, I was curious: did he go through with it? As it turned out, he did: there is a Wikipedia page for his son, Andrew Leslie, who was himself a lieutenant-general in the army. The page mentions that his father changed his name to obtain the inheritance. Lt. Col. McNaughton, later Leslie, became a brigadier general, so the name change didn’t hurt his career any.
