Ann Ward with her late husband Fred Jnr and five daughters, Carol Gowing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward and Janet Pett (Picture: Champion News)
The mum of five sisters left just £50 each from their grandad’s £500,000 estate believes her late husband would be ‘turning in his grave’ at the thought of his daughters being cut out.
Frederick Ward Snr sparked a bitter family feud after leaving the vast majority to his two grown-up children following his death in 2020.
He left out the five daughters of eldest son Fred, who died in 2015, telling his lawyers he was ‘disappointed’ none had come to see him in hospital.
Fred’s widow Ann Ward is said to be in ‘no doubt whatsoever’ he would have been deeply hurt by the snub.
Speaking to MailOnline, a close family source said: ‘If her late husband was still alive he would have been absolutely fuming that his daughters had been disinherited like this.
‘He would be turning in his grave.’
They claimed the ensuing court battle seeking their father’s one-third share of the estate was ‘not about the money’, insisting the women were ‘fighting for what their dad would have wanted and what their grandfather originally promised’.
The sisters – Carol Gowing, Angela St Marseille, Amanda Higginbotham, Christine Ward and Janet Pett – ‘can’t afford to’ appeal the ruling, the source added.
The judge ruled he was entitled to live his granddaughters £50 each (Picture: Champion News)
Angela St Marseille (Picture: Champion News)
Christine Ward (Picture: Champion News)
Amanda Higginbotham (Picture: Champion News)
Carol Gowing (Picture: Champion News)
Janet Pett (Picture: Champion News)
Fred Snr, an ‘independent and strong minded’ former soldier, cable joiner and regular social club user who lived in South Ealing, west London, died aged 91 in 2020.
He had previously made a will which split his estate, including his £450,000 maisonette, between all three of his children.
But Fred Jr died before his dad in 2015, following which the family fell out and Mr Ward did not see much of Fred Jr’s side of the family.
When his will was read out by Terry after his death, a bitter shouting match broke out – which was recorded and played to the court – when it was revealed that the five sisters had been all but cut out.
From a fortune valued at around £500,000, they were each handed an envelope containing £50.
They then sued, claiming that their grandad’s final 2018 will was invalid, having been made when he was ‘an ill man’ and ‘frightened’ of Terry, who ‘coerced’ him into making it.
They also pointed the finger at their aunt, Mr Ward’s daughter and carer in the last years of his life Susan, accusing her of exerting ‘undue influence’ over their grandad.
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But their case was thrown out by the judge, Master James Brightwell, who said it was ‘entirely rational’ for the ‘disappointed’ grandad to cut them out due to their ‘very limited contact’ with him in his last years.
He said that ‘the evidence does not come close to persuading me’ that Terry had ‘coerced’ his father or that Susan had ‘controlled’ him such as to cast doubt on his will.
The judge added: ‘In those circumstances, and despite a promise by Fred several years earlier to divide his estate between his children’s children if anything should happen to any of them, the 2018 will was in my view entirely rational.
‘This does not mean that I cannot understand the claimants’ disappointment at being essentially left out.’
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