Death Certs England .....

[HeatherH]

Hello all,
If someone was to die away from the Uk in say WW1 or WW2 would there be a death cert for them in the Vital Stats in London.
I'm asking as a friend has an Uncle who was born 1898 and served in WW1. they have a picture which his father wrote on the back the name and that he had died in Egypt. (its believed in WW2 as he may have been a Pilot however we haven't found his name on the list of dead so I thought with all that was going on following WW2 between Isreal and Egypt perhaps in 1951-1952)
Which brings me back to asking for your opinion. Would the death be reported in Uk and if so where?
Cheers,
HeatherH

[AndrewP]

Hi Heather,

If he died overseas as a casualty of war, there should be a "Service Return" with his name listed on it. On ScotlandsPeople (andin New Register House) these are indexed with the deaths. The result is not a death certificate, but a list of names, service numbers, regiments, cause of death and place of death. Note that the cause of death was approximate, such as killed in action, missing in action; and that the place of death was often approximate, such as France or Belgium (but others gave a place name). The level of detail depended largely on if the body was found and identified, or if he was listed as missing, assumed dead.

He should also be listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Association website:

http://www.cwgc.org/

And if he belonged to a Scottish regiment, he should be listed on the Scottish National War Memorial website:

http://www.snwm.org/

All the best,

AndrewP

[trish1]

The old 1837online is the only site I can remember that had British deaths overseas online - the web site changed its name - the following indicates they have overseas deaths 1761-1994 but obviously someone has to have registered the death for it to be in the list.

http://www.findmypast.com/BirthsMarriagesDeaths.jsp

It is a subscription or pay to view site (I only ever bought 1 set of credits and that was moons ago, so sorry I cannot check it)

As Andrew noted, if a war death it should be in the cwgc site

Trish

[HeatherH]

Thank you Andrew and Trish.
In WW1 Archibald Goodall born in 1899 in Edmonton Middlesex is in the Royal Engineers and makes the rank of Sergent. The family have a photo of him in his uniform and his Medal index Card. There is a second photo showing Archibald in a RAF uniform in WW2 with writting on the back."beloved brother killed ww2 in egypt"
We have tried the usual sites for WW1 and WW2 deaths and have had no joy finding an Archibald Goodall who could have died in WW2. This is why I was wondering about the death cert which would have probably been issued in England and I have no idea how their system works as all my research is based mainly in Scotland with a wee sprinkling of Irish to keep things interesting.
Archibald had never married so any papers would have no doubt been sent to his parents Archibald Goodall and Alice Maud May Attwell in England.
Cheers,
Heather