WW1 Death Certificate Help

[josie]

How do i obtain a death cert for a solider in WW1.
I have the details,but am not sure where i send for it as he died oversea's
any help would be gratefully recieved.

Am i also right in thinking :Theatre of war means where he served and died?

[Peter Goodey]

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

[Geoffers]

Am i also right in thinking :Theatre of war means where he served and died?

The Theatre of war is where he served, but not necessarily where he died. The certificate should confirm this.

Geoffers

[joette]

Hope you are not expecting great things from the certificate.I viewed a few at GROS in Edinburgh & it was very disappointing.They did vary on info but don't hold your breath

[Mythology]

"The Theatre of war is where he served, but not necessarily where he died."

Very true. One of mine, on the CWGC site, buried at Brompton Cemetery, is not even listed in the War Deaths index.
This was not a case of the body being shipped back for burial - he was badly wounded at Kut-el-Amara, sent to Bombay where he spent some time in hospital, then sent to England for an operation, but didn't survive and is in the ordinary GRO index with a St George Hanover Square reference.

[peter nicholl]

Following on from Myth's post, the Certificate may not be too helpful. If you have enough information to apply for a Certificate, then you should find an entry on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's site. If you look and see that the reference is to a Panel, then in all probability the body was never found and will be shown on the Cert as "Presumed Dead", or "Killed in Action". If there is a Grave Reference, eg IV.A.5A, then there is a grave and the Cause of Death may given, eg "Died of Wounds". If the Cemetery is in Britain, then they would probably have a "Normal" British Death Certificate, but the "Where Died" may well be a Military Hospital, eg the War Hospital, Upton, Northants.

HTH
Peter

PS "Soldiers Died in the Great War" may also be as informative.

[josie]

Thanks Peter for this onfo. I looked on the CWGS and yes there is a grave Ref. The cemetery is the Sarigol Military Cemetery Kriston. So where do i go from here?

[peter nicholl]

Hi Josie

There are a number of options:
i. Order the certificate, which, at least in the Uk, may be done on-line http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/ ;or

ii. post the name, service number, regiment/corps, date of death, etc here and ask if SKS who has access to "Soldiers Died in the Great War" to do a look up; or

iii, if your local library has copies of "Soldiers etc" do your own look up (Bristol Central Library has a full set).

When you looked at the CWGC site, did you click on Sarigol under a Cemetery Search, rather than a Casualty Search? There is a lot of info. about the Cemetery, including a plan, photograph and an alphabetical list of the soldiers buried there.

Peter

[josie]

Thanks Peter
and everybody esle for there help i will now try the options you mentioned.
I live in Australia,but i will contact library here and see if they have copy, once agian thanks for your help.

Sue

[peter nicholl]

Hi Josie, Good luck. One other place to try for info. is the UK National Archives site for their documents on line. They have some War Diaries and if you look for his Regiment and the month and year you may be lucky. I have a several blokes where there are War Diaries for when they died, but if they were Other Ranks they get only a general mention. One of mine was killed just before Christmas 1914 and although there was a truce, it was not to play football, but to recover the dead and wounded. They can make very sad reading, try looking under Surname Stories/ Boaters of London on my web site.


Peter