DEATHcertificate

[gerryads]

Hi
Could someone please tell me if and where I could  obtain a death certificate for a family member who served with the Royal Artillery and died in France in January 1940.

[dawnsh]

Hi gerryads

Options........

Have you found an entry for him on the Commonwealth War Garves Commission site?

http://www.cwgc.org/

If you have, then I would suggest not applying for a death certificate unless you need it for legal purposes. A war death cert may not contain anymore information, genealogical or otherwise, than is on the CWGC citation.

If you do need his certificate then you can search the GRO indexes at the 7 locations around England & Wales who host the full index. The indexes are also available on FindMyPast.

Once you have the information from the index, you can apply to the GRO at Southport (www.gro.gov.uk) for a copy which will cost £9.25 inc postage and should take 5-7 working days to be despatched.

Hope this helps.

Dawn

[gerryads]

Hi
Thanks Dawn I have found him on the Commonwealth War graves site but would like to find out a bit more about the circumstances of his death.

[dawnsh]

His death cert will most probably say 'killed in action' or 'died of wounds'. There won't be any specifics.

I'm sure there will be people here who could point you in the direction of war diaries and other sources.

Any chance of posting his name so we can look for you?

Dawn

[gerryads]

Hi Dawn
 
  Name: James Largan
  Rank: Quartermaster Serjeant
  Regiment: Royal Artillery 1 Medium Regt
  Service Number: 1017758
  Died 5th January 1940
  Age 40

[IMBER]

The CWGC site indicates that of the 599 burials in the cemetery only 6 are from WW2 and that they predate the German advance. That could mean a possibity of an accident or similar, in which case the death record might record this. Just a thought.

Imber

[briant]

Hi, According to FindMyPast
               Name,   Largan, James
               Unit,     Royal Artillery
               Rank,      Bqms
               No,       1017758
               Year,     1940
               Vol,         14
               Page,      247

Record Source,  GRO War Death Army Other Ranks (1939 to 1948)