George Stanley Hall 45 RM Commando

[Jsavage00]

My great-uncle was a No. 45 Royal Marine Commando.
He died in training on the 10th Oct 1945 in Worthing.
I have all the necessary information about him:
D.o.b: 2nd Dec 1922/23
Mothers maiden name: Compton
etc, etc
I have a thread on WW2 talk about him but i havent asked the question I am about to ask on there...

How comes there are no records of his death in training? A family member said that they were meant to be using blanks but he got shot with a live bullet...

I have not been able to find any newspaper articles about it at all!
The only things I have found is the war memorial website and his name in the honours..
I do not even have a photo all though he is said to look like my dad and I look my dad too... But that could only help in identifying him...
Thank you,
Jsavage00

[mmm45]

Hi
His service record is probably still with Ministry of Defence.You can apply for them from the Veterans agency website.There maybe more info contained in it.
because he died in UK There will also be a death certificate.

https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records

Commando Veterans Association have a website maybe worth posting on there
http://forum.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/forums/list.page

As you say he is on the CWGC site.

Ady

[ScouseBoy]

There should have been a Board of Inquiry  into the death.  Or alternatively a Civilian Inquest.

[Drew5233]

I've just looked through the units diary for Oct 1945 and on the day of his death they were doing a lot of range work with live ammunition, zeroing weapons etc. I suspect he was killed in a range accident rather than some sort of exercise involving a mix up between live and blank ammunition. The unit was in the Eastbourne area at the time of his death.

Do you have a copy of his death certificate?

[Jsavage00]

Thank you drew and no i have no original certs, im just going of information
my family has said!
Thank you

[Jsavage00]

Update: After speaking to a family member, i found out that George's parents refused to take the medals and they got rid of everything. Apparently the MOD also covered his death up as he died in training. I do not know how i would go about this.
Thank you,
Jordan

[George Stanley 'Sonny' Hall. 45 RM Commando. PO/X 111875]

[RRTB]

Ref his medals: it might be worthwhile contacting the MoD Medal Office and asking whether the medals could be (re)issued to you. It can do no harm to try, and if they say yes then they can inform you as to what you would need to supply them with in order to complete the request.

RRTB

 

[ScouseBoy]

They would probably need the death certificate of the service man,   then they would want to know your relationship to the man.

[RRTB]

When I approached them concerning one of my father's medals they didn't require a death certificate. They did need the details of his service, eg his regimental number, DoB, etc, and then they went into the records themselves even though I had sent them official copies which the Records Office had sent me! It took a while but was worth it in the end.

With the OP's relative's unfortunate situation of being killed during training, perhaps there could perhaps be other hoops to jump through I suppose.