Mick's observation makes me wonder who actually filled in the death certificate and how the recovery and burial of remains actually did take place under such circumstances. My guess on the burial is that it would have been through the local church, just as in non-war times. But if there was fairly widespread destruction as the National Archives weekly report notes about the raid on Southampton that night (which was apparently the cause of his death), then would the recovery of the remains have been done by teams of civil defenders and the remains brought to some sort of central morgue, much as in a modern train or other disaster? If so, then it may have been that the attention of those medically capable of giving a definitive cause of death was on the triage of the survivors, so that the cause of death to be recorded was left to non-medical persons who were competent only to make such a summary notation as he received on his certificate. This is just a speculation, based on my knowledge of how WWII combat casualties were handled on the front lines. Perhaps someone on the list knows more about how civilian casualties were handled in bombings. From: mick <bareman@tpg.com.au> Subject: Re: [DEV] UNUSUAL CAUSE OF DEATH: WILLIAM JAMES SLY On Sat, 4 Jan 2014 01:00:41 +0000 (GMT) sly211@btinternet.com wrote: > Hi Listers > > Can I just say thank you to everyone who has taken the trouble to reply to my query. Not only have I been given access to photographs of WILLIAM SLY, but also of his public house, and details of the air raid in which he was killed > > I have looked at almost all of the websites and I could not believe that first, I missed the CWGC site for civilian war deaths, and second, that I didn't think to check out the Bitterne connection > > I am still slightly surprised that the death certificate was so vague, and that it did not specify the injuries as a normal post mortem would today. Perhaps it's because there were too many deaths for the authorities to do any more than record them in terms of numbers, especially when there were relatives who could take responsibility for the burial > > Thanks again everyone. I have learned so much more than I could ever have expected. I hope that this discussion has helped other people who might have come across a similar mystery. In order not to take up any more time on a subject that now seems to have been answered satisfactorily, I'll just shut up now! > > John Sly > John the bodies of bomb victims seldom are in a suitable condition to perform an autopsy and in times of conflict especially the euphemism is all that is required for legal purposes and a more complete description would usually increase the familys grief. mick