Pass it On Trivia Quiz

Answer: A red rose

Jack Benny died in 1974. He had been married to Mary Livingstone for over 40 years, but she outlived him by almost a decade. In a magazine shortly after his death, Mary wrote that Jack had paid the local florist to deliver a single rose to her every day for the rest of her life.

Answer: £1.5 trillion

The anonymous donation could only be spent when its value could cover the whole sum of the country's national debt. Even though the interest gained since 1928 brought the total to over £350 million, unfortunately the UK was £1.5 trillion in debt in 2015.

The generous donation didn't even come close. Barclays managed the fund and was trying to find a way around the clause preventing its use. The fund was so immense that in 2013, it was one of the country's largest charities.

Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Although 'The Great Gatsby' can now be considered an American classic, Fitzgerald was struggling for money at the time of his death in 1940. He was an alcoholic, in debt, and supporting a seriously ill wife. Originally, his will made provisions for 'a funeral and burial inkeeping with my station in life', but he changed it shortly before his death to ensure he had the 'cheapest' funeral.

Answer: His wife had to marry again.

Heinrich Heine's will stated that his wife would inherit his estate. She just had to fulfill one condition: remarry. He wrote that this was so 'there will be at least one man to regret my death'. He was known for his sense of humour, so this part of his will was probably a joke. It was, however, legally binding. Mathilde had to fulfill his wishes in order to inherit the money.

Answer: 2010

Wellington R. Burt didn't want any of his closest descendants to inherit his wealth. There was a clause in his will that meant that the majority of his fortune would only be shared out 21 years after the death of his last grandchild. Of his grandchildren who were born before Burt died, the last one died in 1989. That meant that his wealth could be shared out in 2010.

The legacy was worth over $100 million and was shared between 12 descendants.

Answer: George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw left a sum of money to go towards reforming the English alphabet. Known as the Shavian alphabet, it had over 40 letters where each letter represented a single sound. Shaw wanted a phonetic alphabet where sounds like 'ch' and 'sh' were represented by a single character instead of two or three.

A version of Shaw's play 'Androcles and the Lion' was published after his death using the Shavian alphabet.

Answer: 70 strangers picked out of a phone book

Wills were rare in Portugal because relatives automatically received a large proportion of person's inheritance. Luis Carlos, however, was a childless bachelor. Without heirs, his wealth would go to the state - something that he did not want to happen. Instead, he picked 70 names at random out of a Lisbon phone book and left his wealth to them.

Answer: Leona Helmsley

In her will, American businessperson Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her pet dog. Trouble was set to receive more than any of Helmley's grandchildren - two of them received nothing at all for 'reasons which are known to them'. A judge reduced the amount to $2 million dollars because $12 million was deemed an excessive sum to look after a dog.

Answer: Robert Louis Stevenson

Annie Ide disliked her birthday. She was born on 25th December, so she had to share her celebrations with Christmas Day. Robert Louis Stevenson's birthday was in November. In 1891, he wrote a letter transferring the legal rights of his own birthday to his friend's daughter, Annie. He claimed to have 'attained an age when O, we never mention it, and that I have now no further use for a birthday'. Stevenson died three years later, a few weeks after the birthday he donated to Annie.

The other three choices are all members of the '27 club'. They are all musicians who died aged 27 - unfortunately, none of them made it to their forties.

Answer: Hold a seance

Houdini spent part of his career debunking people who claimed to have supernatural abilities. Nevertheless, he told his wife that he would speak to her from beyond the grave if it were possible. Every year, she held a seance, listening out for the phrase 'Rosabelle believe' - their secret code and a reference to a song that they both loved.

After receiving no contact for ten years, Bess Houdini gave up, apparently stating that a decade was 'long enough to wait for any man'.