How have words like “my surviving children” been interpreted in a will and how have they been interpreted?

The respondent says that these words take this case out of the rule in Browne v. Moody because they evince an intention on the part of the testator to exclude the issue of any children who predecease the widow. I do not agree. I can find nothing in the words which indicate that the testator intended that they speak from the date of death of the widow as opposed to the death of the testator. They are not, in my view, inconsistent with the rule in Browne v. Moody. Indeed, the phrase “my surviving children” strongly suggests that the testator had in mind as beneficiaries the children who survived him and not the children who survived his wife. The latter would have prompted the phrase “her surviving children” or “our surviving children”. Assuming that the words used in the will speak from the date of death of the testator, the words simply mean that if a child should predecease the testator, leaving issue, a deceased child’s share shall go to the surviving children. This is not consistent with paragraph 8 but the two paragraphs are not totally reconciliable. The rules of construction must, in the absence of clarity in the words, apply.