Death certificate for those killed in action during WW2

[AliMacD]

Hi all
I am trying to establish if a person killed in action at Dunkirk during WW2 would have had a death certificate issued to his family. I have found plenty of memorial info for him but no death certificate.
 Any help would be gratefully received.
 Regards
 Ali

[IMBER]

 The index to the registers of deaths in the armed forces can be found on Findmypast following which a basic death certificate can be ordered from the GRO. This is in a military format but serves for legal purposes. While relatives of those who died overseas would have been notified of deaths it seems unlikely that they would be given such a certificate. Deaths in the UK would have resulted in the issue of the more familiar standard death certificate.

Imber

[t mo]

hi ali
if you care to post his name and all relevant info we may be able to help find the data you need .
regards
trevor

[dowdstree]

Hi Ali,

I had a Great Uncle killed in Italy in April, 1945. There is not a death certificate as such. There is only a military style list which includes other casualties. This gives his Army number, name, Age,
Country of Birth, Date and place of death and cause of death.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Dorrie

[Jebber]

Findmypast have
GRO WAR DEATHS ARMY OTHER RANKS (1939 to 1948)
GRO WAR DEATHS R.A.F.ALL RANKS (1939 to 1948)

Naval deaths are under Deaths at sea.

Jebber

[AliMacD]

Thanks for all the replies. His name is Harold Robert Luke who was killed at Dunkirk in 1940. He was a Colour Sergeant in the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, army number 6344485. I have found various memorial info but no death certificate??

[davidft]

You can use this data to get a copy from the GRO

Regiment or unit   Royal West Kent Regiment
Record source   GRO War Death Army Other Ranks (1939 to 1948)
Volume   6  Page   323  Year 1940

You may have an extra 4 in his soldier's number according to indexes

[Drew5233]

He wasn't a Colour Sergeant, he has the rare 'ish privilege of being a PSM. Warrant Officer Class III.

[Drew5233]

I can also tell you he would have been killed at Nieppe Forest. I did some research on what happened there 7 years ago and discovered that the 5 RWKs were fighting a SS unit. Some of the British soldiers that were captured were subsequently executed in the forest. I'm not allowed to post any pictures from files on here but you can see some of the info in the link below. If you access it via a mobile you are more likely to see the images, many were lost when the forum changed servers.

http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/18410-british-soldiers-murdered-at-forêt-de-nieppe-nieppe-forest-1940/page-4