* Death certificate - missing in action

[Dennis]

I've been trying without success to find out whether Death Certificates are issued or deaths registered for soldiers who died in action overseas but whose body was never found. A relative of mine joined the Indian Army in London in 1939 and died in action in Burma during 1943 but his body was never found. He's listed on the Commonwealth War Memorial in Rangoon and his Will is listed national probate calendar showing that Administration had been granted to his father in 1946. But searching Ancestry and FMP Death indexes produces nothing.

Does anyone know if Deaths were registered in this situation?

[tatewise]

It might help if you were prepared to supply explicit details, or gave more information about what search criteria you used.

As far as I am aware all military BMD events should be registered, but the Registration District, Sub-District, and County will be the Place abroad, Military Unit, and "Overseas".

[Dennis]

Thanks.

The person is John Arthur Frederick EASTWOOD. Born 1916 (mother's Maiden Name Tuff) in London and appears in the Birth Index Q4 1916 for Edmonton (Middlesex - incorrectly shown in Ancestry as Buckinghamshire). In 1939 he joined the Indian Army in London. In April 1943 while fighting Japanese troops in Burma he was killed but his body was never found (I am certain of that - I have the original letter from his Commanding Officer to his parents explaining what happened, and later letters from CWGC confirming his body was never found). This is the CWGC site information.

JAF_Eastwood.jpg (30.47 KiB) Viewed 6893 times

His address when he joined was in Muswell Hill, north London.

I'm asking really out of general interest about how soldiers killed on active service have their deaths registered, I haven't hit a dead end of any sort on this person, I know pretty much everything there is to know about him.

The reason I was searching for his Death Certificate in the Index was because his entry in the 1939 Register is still closed and I wanted to see it to find his occupation, but they require a Death Certificate before they'll consider opening a closed record. Although in a few months it'll be 100 years since his birth so I guess I can ask them to open it anyway then (or they'll open it automatically)

[TimTreeby]

Link from National Archives.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help ... orld-wars/

FMP show his death registered under GRO WAR DEATHS INDIAN SERVICES (1939 to 1948) Transcription,
see http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?i ... 0013%2f020 So should be able to get a Death Certificate.

How do you know he is on the 1939 Register as if Record is closed won't be indexed and therefore you can't be certain that he is actually on there. Also you need to know his actual address in 1939 as well to get it opened. Also if was already in the Services then won't be on 1939 Register any way.

[AdrianBruce]

I hesitate to be dogmatic here because there are several bits I don't understand. But here goes... Normally, if there is no body, then a certificate will not be issued until a court case mandates it (that's one bit where I'm really not clear).

However, if one followed that process for a war, then the families of the deceased would get a slap in the face from officialdom when trying to get probate on the estate. No DC normally means no probate. To that end, legislation was passed at the end of WW1 to authorise the issuing of certificates for that conflict regardless of the absence of a body. (NB I guess Scotland would need its own legislation) One should beware of these certificates - they look different and the "place" referred to, seems at best a Theatre of War. In fact, they add nothing to the details already available for free on the CWGC site. Which accounts for why I'd never seen one until recently.

Another thing I don't understand - these DCs were not issued until some time after 1918 - indeed, I've a personal suspicion that the process of identifying casualties with no known grave for CWGC and the compilation of the DCs were part of the same process. I also suspect that in many cases, probate was issued on the base of the telegram informing the NoK of the death, rather than wait years for a DC.

As for JAF Eastwood, Tim's just pointed out where he is listed on FMP. There are a number of record-sets in "British Nationals Armed Forces Deaths 1796-2005" on FMP. I am unclear if GRO can produce certificates for all of these - however, since he is in "GRO War Death Indian Services (1939 to 1948)", it would suggest they could. Though as Tim suggests, it wouldn't do you any good at opening his record unless you already know his address and he wasn't in the forces already (though that's something else I'm unclear of, in relation to the 1939 Register.)

[Dennis]

Thanks for the replies. That's given me some more avenues to explore.

I take the point abput 1939 Register and address, but I have a pretty good idea where he was living on registration day (with his parents and he is, I think, one of the two closed records there, the other being his still living younger sister).

Adrian, your comments have prompted me to do some more research of this. As you say, there must have been a wartime process to deal with "missing in action" but I haven't yet found out what it was. I know that for JAF Eastwood the national probate calendar doesn't list him until 1946 when Administration was granted (to his father) 10/10/1946, stating his DoD as 4/4/1943 "on war service". I imagine the procedures at the time had to take into account that servicemen missing in action could have been captured and in POW camps. So they had to wait until all the POWs had been released and accounted for - ie by 1946 - before they could presume death and grant probate. That's just my speculation though.