A colonel took the trousers off the solicitor who wrote himself into a client's will, went to prison, then beat him in the House of Lords without a lawyer

Kitty Wells died in 1947 with an estate of £115,000. Her will was drawn up by her solicitor, Frederick Nye, of Brighton, and named Nye as residuary beneficiary. The residue came to £44,000. Her cousin, Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Wintle of the First Royal Dragoons, accused Nye of cheating the family and complained to the Law Society without result. Wintle lured Nye to a meeting under a false pretext, forced him to take off his trousers, photographed him in a newspaper hat and left him in the street. He kept the trousers as a trophy in his club. He was sentenced to six months in prison for the assault. He then took an assignment of a beneficiary's interest so that he could challenge the will. He lost before a judge and jury and lost 2 to 1 in the Court of Appeal. In the House of Lords he argued his own case for six days, helped by his former batman, Cedric Mays, who prepared the appeal books with him. He won unanimously, the first non-lawyer to do so in the House of Lords, and Nye was refused his costs. Viscount Simonds held that a will prepared by a stranger who benefits under it raises a suspicion that the person propounding it must remove. Nye was later struck off the roll of solicitors. The sources do not say who received the £44,000 in the end.