Thank you Maggie,
It was a terrible way for them to find out,,He had a brother in the Police Force and a Brother in Law,,you would of thought they might of been notified.
It is such a sad story.
I do think that the word is "form"...be it in 1923 a lot of expressions used back then are not used now, so that the word "form" seems strange to us, but back then was probably used all the time.
Regards
maeeye