Legitimacy Act 1926

Legitimacy Act 1926[a]
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to amend the law relating to children born out of wedlock.
Citation16 & 17 Geo. 5. c. 60
Territorial extent England and Wales[b]
Dates
Royal assent15 December 1926
Commencement1 January 1927[c]
Other legislation
AmendsLegitimacy Declaration Act 1858
Amended by
  • Matrimonial Causes Act 1950
  • Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953
  • Legitimacy Act 1959
  • Children Act 1975
Status: Partially repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended
Text of the Legitimacy Act 1926 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Legitimacy Act 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. 5. c. 60) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The purpose of the act was to amend the law relating to children born out of wedlock.

Act

The fundamental principle of the act is exposed in article 1(2):

Nothing in this Act shall operate to legitimate a person whose father or mother was married to a third person when the illegitimate person was born.

The act allowed children to be legitimised by the subsequent marriage of their parents, provided that neither parent had been married to a third party at the time of the birth. In those circumstances, the legitimised birth was re-entered in the birth indexes for that year (sometimes many years after the original birth). The original entry would be annotated to refer to the new entry.[1]

The act was modified by the Legitimacy Act 1959 (7 & 8 Eliz. 2. c. 73), which extended it to children whose parent had been married to somebody else when they were born.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ Section 12(1).
  2. ^ Section 12(3).
  3. ^ Section 12(2).

References

  1. ^ a b K (A Child) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 1834 (Admin) at para. 24, [2018] WLR 6000 (18 July 2018), High Court (England and Wales)


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