Hi :-)
Thank you, nope not discarding her, I want to know who she is but I'm just playing out the different scenarios of what if's in my head :-) I kind of feel lost because there's so many directions this can go into. I do think she has some sort of link (my gutt tells me shes my grandfathers sister because of the brooks-benning surname similarity and them being born 5 years apart - but one born in England and the other in S.A. - bit weird, unless the immigration happened within that period of time) one would think it's easy to find an ancestor... hehe
Here's what I could see what doesnt quite make sense.
It seems like Raoul Harter was her 3rd husband if I look at the amount of surnames and what I can make out on the death notice.
The death notice reads"No children by the surviving spouse, subsequent to the diseased HS Armstrong, Fernhead whom she was divorced no children of that marriage"
There's no information about the first husband except the surname Fernhead, second was Harold Staveley Armstrong, they had a daughter Jean, Harold passed away 7 August 1936, and then she married Raoul Harter born 14 September 1900. She nominated Raoul Harter as her executor and left most of her valuables to her daughter, the balance was to be divided as per executor's discretion.
What seems odd is that the death notice says Armstrong was the 2nd Husband but the Antenuptial Contract mentions her as Winifred May Langford Fernhead, born Brooks-Benning.... what happened to Armstrong?
Mrs. Harter's will says her daughter's name is Jean Staveley Fern (born Armstrong), also weird because the Death Notice says it's Jean Stevely Epstein, born Armstrong. (She perhaps got married to Epstein but why the Fern on the Will then?)
Perhaps the order of the husbands was incorrect on the death notice Mr. Harter wrote, maybe Armstrong was the first husband, which will explain the Antenuptial surname referral.
Then there's the age issue. The Antenuptial Contract says she was born 2nd day of April 1895 of Johannesburg which is located in a different state (Gauteng) than Cape Province. The Death Notice says she died 20 January 1951 at age 58, and 9 months (supposed to be 56), birth place and nationality says Cape Province. I can't make out the town name, it looks like Mount Frere, there is a mount Frere in our Eastern Cape state.
I still can't get the age thing though... I'm sure a husband won't get his wife's age wrong? But why the birth date on the antenuptial contract? Can that be a typo then?
It seemed like she died while on holiday because her place of death is Badplaas Hotel near Carolina in our Mpumalanga state, it's a holiday resort.
Only additional information on the death notice is that her occupation is a Consulting Engineer, makes sense why she had so many valuables.
I could e-mail these for private viewing if required, let me know.