Any soldier being employed in an expedition or engaged in actual warfare, 1[or an airman so employed or engaged,] or any mariner being at sea, may, if he has completed the age of eighteen years, dispose of his property by a will made in the manner provided in section 66. Such wills are called privileged wills.
Illustrations:
(i) A, a medical officer attached to a regiment is actually employed in an expedition. He is a soldier actually employed in an expedition, and can make a privileged will.
(ii) A is at sea in a merchant-ship, of which he is the purser. He is a mariner, and, being at sea, can make a privileged will.
(iii) A, a soldier serving in the field against insurgents, is a soldier engaged in actual warfare, and as such can make a privileged will.
(iv) A, a mariner of a ship, in the course of a voyage, is temporarily on shore while she is lying in harbour. He is, for the purposes of this section, a mariner at sea, and can make a privileged will.
(v) A, an admiral who commands a naval force, but who lives on shore, and only occasionally goes on board his ship, is not considered as at sea, and cannot make a privleged will.
(vi) A, a mariner serving on a military expedition, but not being at sea, is considered as a soldier, and can make a privileged will.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 65
Section 65 defines privileged wills, exempting any soldier, airman employed in an expedition or engaged in actual warfare, or mariner at sea from the rigid execution formalities of Section 63.
The operative threshold is active combat deployment: a soldier or airman residing in a peacetime military cantonment cannot make a privileged will; they must be employed in an active expedition, mobilized for combat, or engaged in actual warfare. Similarly, a sailor must be 'at sea', meaning serving aboard a vessel or in the process of boarding. Once this status is established, the law grants radical exemptions regarding testamentary execution.
Privileged wills under Section 65 are an extraordinary exception to the sacred rule of attestation in Section 63. Because soldiers and mariners in warfare face immediate peril, the law permits them to dispose of immense assets informally. Litigators handling military estates must prove that the decedent was under orders for mobilization or stationed in an active operational theater at the exact moment the privileged testament was made.