George Bernard Shaw's will ordered a new 40-letter alphabet; the High Court found the trust not charitable in 1957, and the National Gallery of Ireland received a third of his royalties until 2020

Shaw's will, dated June 1950, left the residue of an estate reported at about 300,000 pounds^† first to a trust run by the Public Trustee. The trust was to inquire into a new British alphabet of at least 40 letters, transliterate Androcles and the Lion into it, and publish the result. What remained was to be split equally among the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the British Museum and the National Gallery of Ireland. In Re Shaw [1957], Mr Justice Harman held the alphabet trust not charitable: propaganda to persuade the public is not education, and the benefit was controversial. The Public Trustee had already held a design competition with four winners, and Kingsley Read was appointed to combine their designs. Because the will was contested, funds covered one book, a 1962 Penguin edition of Androcles in both spellings. My Fair Lady, based on Shaw's Pygmalion, opened on Broadway in 1956 and became a film in 1964. The National Gallery of Ireland received its first payment, 10,000 pounds, in 1957, and one third of posthumous royalties until 2020^†. The two other beneficiaries received the same share.