I Will . . . Trivia Quiz

Answer: To cover the route of his funeral procession

The Macedonian king, Alexander the Great (356 to 323 BC), had conquered vast areas of the then known world by his early thirties, and so had accumulated much wealth. He then fell ill, either from a disease or through being poisoned, and died in Babylon where his body was embalmed and put in a coffin. This was taken first to Memphis in Egypt, and later to Alexandria, also in Egypt, where it was put in a tomb whose location has been lost over time.

When dying, Alexander named his successors and instructed his generals to arrange for three things to be done after his death. These were that the best doctors should carry his coffin, that the road along which his coffin traveled to its resting place should be covered with his money and jewels (probably only temporarily), and that his hands should be left outside the coffin. Thus people would see that even doctors are powerless against death, while earthly possessions stay on earth after their owner dies and leaves it empty-handed.

A manuscript written in the century after the king's death called the 'Greek Alexander Romance' contained this will, but for centuries it had been considered as having been distorted for political reasons. However, after many years of research, the historian David Grant found in 2017 that this version of the will was based on Alexander's original last testament.

Answer: His personal slaves to be freed

George Washington (1732-1799) was Commander-in-Chief of the American forces during the American Revolution, and afterwards was elected the first President of an independent United States of America, serving in this role from 1789 to 1797. In 1761 he inherited Mount Vernon, an estate in Virginia, and married a widow, Martha Custis, in 1759. He owned many slaves, including dower slaves brought into the marriage from the Custis estate by Martha.

Over the decades Washington gradually began to favour abolition of slavery, and when he died after an illness the will he left freed his valet with immediate effect. It also stated that the other slaves he owned should be freed, but only after Martha died. This was because at least some of them had intermarried with her dower slaves who would have to return to the Custis estate after her death.

In fact, Martha freed all his slaves about a year and a half after Washington died, but many of them did not want to leave their spouses and families so did not move far away. In his will Washington further stipulated that old and infirm slaves, as well as needy young ones, should be supported by his estate.

Answer: Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) began his writing career as a journalist and became a very prolific and successful author, who was a social commentator, but was mainly known for writing novels, novellas, and short stories. Before being reprinted in book form, the novels were generally first published in installments in magazines, which were read by or read out to many people. Dickens became very popular with the public and traveled around Britain and North America, giving book readings during his later years.

Dickens died after having a stroke, and his will stated that he wanted his funeral and burial to be carried out without a public announcement being made. He also willed that at most three mourning coaches should be used in the funeral, and 'that those who attend my funeral wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hatband, or other such revolting absurdity' (then outward symbols of mourning). It was decided, mainly by his executor and by the Dean of Westminster, that he should be buried in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey, London. Accordingly his funeral took place privately in the Abbey in the early morning, and only fourteen people were in the coaches that followed the coffin, although it was not recorded how they dressed. Afterwards the public were allowed to view the coffin for a few days before it was interred.

The quotation above is from Dickens's will. The people named as alternative answers were also nineteenth-century authors, with Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman being from the USA and Robert Louis Stevenson from Britain.

Answer: Preserved and put on display

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) wrote extensively on political and economic matters and on animal rights. However, he is mainly known for being a philosopher and the founder of modern Utilitarianism. An important part of this ethical philosophy states that a criterion of judging whether an action is morally right or wrong is whether it is intended to promote happiness and pleasure or to promote unhappiness and pain to the greatest number of people it affects.

In 1769 Bentham had made a will simply leaving his body for dissection, but he later amended this. When he died from natural causes in 1832, he left instructions for his body to be first dissected, and then to be permanently preserved as an auto-icon, which should be put on display. An 1830 document attached to his 1832 will instructed doctor Thomas Southwood Smith to create this auto-icon and this was done. His skeleton and head were kept, and the skeleton was padded out with hay and dressed in a suit of Bentham's but Smith was not able to preserve the head properly so a wax head with some of Bentham's hair attached was used instead. The auto-icon was first displayed in two different houses, then, in 1850, was moved to be put on permanent public display in University College London.

Answer: Harry Houdini

Born Ehrich Weisz in Hungary, Harry Houdini (1874-1926) emigrated to the USA as a child, and adopted his stage name when he began his career as a magician. Although he later became best known as an escape artist, he also made a few movies and piloted aeroplanes. In addition, he wrote about his successful work in exposing fraudulent mediums and psychics who preyed on bereaved people.

Houdini died of peritonitis and his will stated that his wife, Bess, should hold an annual séance to try and contact him. The couple had already agreed on these séances and arranged that he would send her a particular message if he was able. His wife did hold a séance for ten years, but did not receive any communication from him, and in 1936 decided not to hold any more of them. However, magicians in different places continue to hold annual séances, although still no contact with Houdini has been reported.

The other people named in the answers had also been born in other countries - Boris Karloff and Charlie Chaplin in England and Al Jolson in Lithuania - but had moved to the USA and worked there mainly in the movie business.

Answer: George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Ireland, but moved to England in 1876, and mainly lived there for the rest of his life. He wrote many different types of fiction and non-fiction, but became best known as a dramatist, writing more than sixty plays in all. He won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1925 for his 1923 play 'Saint Joan' and in 1939 he was awarded an Oscar for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay for the movie 'Pygmalion', which he adapted from his own 1913 stage play of the same name.

Shaw preferred to be known as "Bernard Shaw" rather than "George Bernard Shaw", and, when he died of renal failure, he left instructions in his will that his executor (the Public Trustee) was to license publication of his works only under the first name. He also willed that, after other bequests had been paid over, the remaining money should be used to invent a phonetic version of the English alphabet which contained forty letters. Shaw did this as he wanted to have an alphabet without the spelling difficulties of the existing one, and a competition to create this 'Shavian alphabet' was conducted. The winning alphabet has only occasionally been used but, for instance, in 1962 a bi-alphabetical edition of one of Shaw's plays containing both conventional and Shavian spellings was published, and a Shavian version of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' appeared in 2013.

The other answers are all the names of authors who were born in Ireland but, like Shaw, spent at least parts of their adult lives in other countries.

Answer: Attend a party after her funeral

Janis Joplin (1943-1970) was an American singer and songwriter. She became the vocalist for the group Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1966, but left in late 1968 to resume her career as a solo singer. Unfortunately Janis spent much of her career addicted to heroin, and, when she was found dead in 1970, the official verdict was that she died of an accidental heroin overdose, possibly compounded by alcohol.

After Janis was cremated her ashes were scattered from an aeroplane into the Pacific Ocean. She had become wealthy and left the bulk of her estate to her parents and two siblings. However, in her last will, made two days before her death, she also stated that $2,500 should be used to fund a party for her friends after her funeral. Some two hundred or more guests were invited to attend this party, at which the band The Grateful Dead provided the music, and took place at the Lions Share rock club in San Anselmo, California.

Answer: Gene Roddenberry

After some years working as a pilot then as a police officer, Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991) became a full-time writer of scripts for various television shows. These included Westerns and dramas featuring policemen, among other genres. He is best known though as the creator of the science fiction series 'Star Trek', which was first shown on television between 1966 and 1969. He was also involved in creating the first part of a follow-up series 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', which ran from 1987 to 1994.

After suffering strokes, Roddenberry died from cardiopulmonary arrest and was cremated before the funeral service for him was held. He willed that his ashes be sent into space and in 1992 some of them were carried there, but for a while only, by NASA astronaut James Weatherbee on a Space Shuttle Columbia mission. In 1997 a commercial Celestis spacecraft carrying some of Roddenbery's and other people's ashes was put into more permanent earth orbit but the orbit later deteriorated and the craft burnt up in the atmosphere. Another flight, but this time into deep space, was planned for 2016 but has been cancelled several times.

The other people named in the answers were all also twentieth century writers of science fiction. Frank Herbert and Robert Heinlein were born in the USA, while Isaac Asimov was born in Russia but moved to the USA when very young.

Answer: Put into a Pringles can

Fredric John Baur (1918-2008) was a chemist and food scientist. While working for Proctor and Gamble he designed the curved Pringles potato-based chips and their tubular container. He began working on creating the chips themselves, and then other employees continued his work to produce the finished product. Pringles were first sold in 1968, and in 1970 Baur was granted a patent for his design of their container and for the method of packing the snacks in them.

Baur told his children of his wish to be buried in a Pringles can in the 1980s, according to an interview his son Larry gave to 'Time' magazine in June 2008. After Baur died from Alzheimer's disease, Larry and his siblings decided the appropriate container to use would be an Original Flavour one. They placed some of his ashes in this, while others were put into a standard urn. Both containers were buried in an ordinary grave and the remaining ashes were given to one of Baur's grandsons.

Answer: His dogs

Lee Alexander McQueen (1969-2010), known as Alexander McQueen, was a successful fashion designer and couturier, who won a number of awards and became a very wealthy man. However, he lived an unhealthy lifestyle, and a few days after his mother had died, he killed himself after having taken a number of drugs.

In his will McQueen left most of his money to humans and to charities for humans but was known as a dog-lover and at the time of his death had three dogs - the English bull terrier, Juice, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, Callum, and the mongrel, Minter. He left fifty thousand pounds to be used to look after these dogs and to give them the best of care. He also left a hundred thousand pounds to each of two animal welfare charities; the Blue Cross animal welfare charity in Burford, Oxfordshire, and the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in South London.