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Case file s1421 · Probate and trust law · 1948
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1948
Kerrobert Court House: Currently holds the town office, a museum and various offices.
Kerrobert Court House. Ringrust. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
1948
Place
Saskatchewan, Canada
Field
wheat farming
Legal tradition
Saskatchewan probate law; holograph (handwritten) wills
Historical event
Post-war prairie farming
Probate and trust lawPostwarNorth AmericaCanada

Cecil Harris lay pinned under his tractor for 10 hours and scratched his will into the fender

In 1948 Cecil George Harris, a Saskatchewan wheat farmer, was trapped under his tractor for about 10 hours. With a pocketknife he scratched into the paint of the fender: "In case I die in this mess I leave all to the wife. Cecil Geo. Harris." He was freed and taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries. His lawyer collected affidavits from eight friends and business associates to confirm the handwriting and obtained medical evidence that the tractor injuries caused his death. The court declared the fender a valid will. The fender stayed on file at the courthouse in Kerrobert for almost 50 years. The courthouse closed, and the fender and the knife went to the University of Saskatchewan College of Law, which displays them in its law library and uses them in teaching. The college marked the will's 65th anniversary on 25 October 2013. The wife who inherited is not named in the sources.

What the law took from it

A handwritten and signed will can be valid without witnesses in Saskatchewan, but the estate must prove the handwriting.

Record vs. record

The University of Saskatchewan says the fender moved to the College of Law in 1996; Federal Retirees says the courthouse closed in 1997:

news.usask.cafederalretirees.ca
Sources
  1. news.usask.caPress
  2. federalretirees.caPress
  3. betterfarming.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Cecil Harris lay pinned under his tractor for 10 hours and scratched his will into the fender,” story s1421, https://www.celebrity.estate/cecil-harris-1948, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Probate and trust lawPostwarNorth AmericaCanada