What does this mean on a death certificate

[AudreyF]

I've been looking at my father-in-law's parents who were not married. His mother was Bertha Fleming and the man named on my father-in-law's birth certificate is noted as Charles Ernest Fleming. But, the 1939 Registration documents confirm Bertha as married (her first husband was still living) but gives Ernest Charles Hawkins as single. Ernest regularly switched his first and middle name around and gave his son (my father-in-law) his surname as a middle name which was supposed to be double barrelled - but wasn't.

So, looking at the 1943 death of Ernest Charles Hawkins I can see that Bertha is the informant. Ernest died in what is described as 'Emergency Hospital' and I think it may have been sudden. Where Bertha's name and address are quoted as the informant it says "causing the body to be buried" rather than the more 'usual' "present at the death".

Can anyone throw light on what the phrase means please. I'm presuming it just means she wanted to claim the body for funeral arrangements etc. and am wondering how she dealt with not being his widow.

[Pam Downes]

Audrey - just stick the phrase (including the quotation marks) "causing the body to be buried" into a search engine.
If you see one linked to WDYTYA you'll find that they're talking about a situation like yours. (I didn't read any other results.)

Pam

[peanut]

Hi

I had this on a death cert. when i looked around for an answers I found it was because there was nobody there at the time of death and my case there was no next of kin

Peanut

[davyr]

Emergency Hospitals were set up during World War Two in the UK, but didn't deal only with casualties resulting from enemy action as the name might suggest - my paternal grandfather died of heart disease in one...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerge...spital_Service

[AudreyF]

Thank you - I'll take a look at the meaning. I don't think the man had next of kin as Bertha was not his wife and his son was overseas during WWII.

[AntonyMMM]

To register a death you have to be a qualified informant. That means fitting into one of the legal categories that makes you eligible to give the information.

The two main categories are someone present at the death, or any relative of the deceased. An unmarried couple are not legally related in any way, so if they weren't present when the partner died they can't fit into either category.

The last on the list is the person arranging disposal of the body - this is not the funeral director but gets used to cover cases where there are no relatives available and a friend, neighbour or sometimes a solicitor will register the death. Sadly this is quite often the only category an unmarried partner can register under..... still applies in many cases today.

Antony
(ex registrar)