Cause of Death meaning

[jrc11]

Looking at a list headed "Naval Casualties Indexes War Grave Rolls and Statistics Book, First World War", the column “ Cause of Death” contains either 1, 2 or 3. What do these stand for?
Thank you

[Andy J2022]

As the contents of Adm 242 (the series whose title you quoted) have been digitised and are available on Ancestry, I would be amazed if someone hasn't provided an explanation. I don't have a subscription for Ancestry so I can't see what their catalogue says on the subject.
If there are only 3 categories, my suggestion would be something like:
1. Death due enemy action
2. Death resulting from Injury, illness not attributable to enemy action
3. Other / unknown (for example presumed drowned and the body not recovered, where the ship etc was not necessarily sunk by the enemy).
As I say, that's just a guess.

[HMac]

Andy has made a pretty good attempt at the answer.

1 - Killed in action.
Died of wounds or disease following wounds.
Killed, Died of Wounds or exposure, Died of Disease following wounds or exposure, Drowned, Missing and subsequently presumed killed or drowned following loss of Ship in action, by mine or torpedo.
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2 - Killed, Died of injuries or exposure, Died of Disease following injuries or exposure, drowned, Missing and subsequently presumed killed or drowned, following the accidental loss of a ship (wreck, collision, internal explosion etc.,) or where the actual cause of a vessel’s loss is not known. Accidental deaths (killed, drowned, etc.) Deaths due to injuries or disease following injuries.
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3 - Deaths from disease.
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4 - Deaths due to Suicide, Murder, Alcoholism, Heat Stroke, Deaths under Anaesthetic and any cases which cannot be classified under disease or accident.
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0/  Body not recovered for Burial.

[jrc11]

Thank you very much for your replies. The death was category 3 aged 18 and was a sick berth attendant in the UK. I cautiously assume the Spanish flu.
Thank you both.

[Andy J2022]

Thanks, Hugh. I should have known that you would be that someone to provide an explanation!