The purpose of the Legitimacy Act 1926 was to amend the law relating to children born out of wedlock.

The fundamental principle of the Legitimacy Act 1926 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.

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

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