SOLDIER'S DEATH CERTIFICATES

[kathleen donaldson]

I came across this article regarding Soldiers death certificates. It's a useful piece of information for present day researchers of WW1

11^th February 1916-Liverpool Courier

SOLDIER’S DEATH CERTIFICATES

The following announcement is issued by the War Office:-

Certificates of the death of soldiers killed in action or dying as a result of active service are issued to those concerned by the War Office on application free of charge. In cases in which more than one certificate is required for insurance purposes, etc, duplicate copies are supplied.

It should be noted that the notification sent to the next-of-kin by the officers in charge of the records immediately upon the receipt of the casualty list is not intended as a certificate of death, but is sent out in order to give the relatives the earliest possible information of the casualty. In each case of death an individual documentary report is subsequently rendered from the base in confirmation, and it is only on receipt of this evidence that a formal certificate of death is issued.

In the case of missing men, a special form of certificate is furnished when the Army Council, after careful consideration of the circumstances of each case, have decided that owing to the lapse of time and absence of news it is necessary to accept the soldiers as dead for official purposes.

Applications for certificates of death in cases where the soldier has been reported killed or dead, or where his death has been officially accepted, should be addressed to the secretary, War Office, Park Buildings, St. James Park, London S.W