[SOC] Bigamy, anyone?

[Chris Redding]

Bear in mind the following:
"UK law recognises as valid, any marriage that was legal at the time and
place that it occurred".

In 1942, Mr C was one of a multitude of Americans who (despite being of
the Mormon faith) joined the brave men who served in the USAAF.  In the
run-up to D-Day, he met and fell deeply in love with a nice, religious
English girl who lived near his base in Lincolnshire.

Emotions ran high at the time.  As many were perfectly aware, he stood a
very good chance of never coming back. Human nature took its course, and
sure as eggs are eggs, 'C junior' was born in the spring of 1943 ;-)

'C senior', a decent and noble man, kept in touch, and returned to the
UK when he had completed his tour.

As was his nature, he did the decent thing, married his English bride,
and took her and baby 'C' back to Utah, USA, where his father was a
minister of the faith.

'C' senior and his bride lived a long and happy life in Utah, only
passing-on a few years ago.  They took 'Baby C' back to the UK often, to
meet his maternal relatives, and show him a little of his land of birth.

'Baby 'C' took his faith seriously, was a committed pacifist, and kept
his dual US/UK nationality to avoid being drafted.

He also took to himself two wives.

Mr C (now 60) recently retired, and decided to retire to the UK.

UK immigration automatically allowed Mr C to enter the UK under his
British passport.  His first wife, of course, also entered
automatically, but immigration had problems with the status of his
second wife, but allowed her in until the matter was decided.

After a lot of letter-writing, Mr C was told that his second wife could
only be treated as a 'visitor', as though she were a 'guest' of the
family.

Mr C is challenging this in the UK courts.  He loves his two wives
deeply, and cannot (because of his faith) tolerate having his second
wife being looked upon in a lesser way than the first.

If (as seems likely) he wins his case, then (as a UK national) this will
have the effect of repealing the law of bigamy for ALL UK men, (and
women for that matter), who will then be free to have as many wives (or
husbands) as they choose!.

Debate  :-)

Chris G4PDJ


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