Although this particular branch of the SLY tree comes from the Southampton area rather than from Devon or Cornwall, I hope that fellow listers might be able to help with an unusual cause of death WILLIAM JAMES SLY was born at Bitterne Brewery in July 1887, the son of a licensed victualler. He appears to have followed his father in this trade, and his death certificate records that he died on 22 June 1942 at Bitterne Brewery. The cause of death was stated to be 'Due to War Operations'. I have never come across this before I cannot guess what a 55 year old licensed victualler would have been doing that would cause his death at what appears to be his home that could be attributed to 'war operations'. Service in the Home Guard comes to mind, but I would have expected the cause of death to be something more specific. Could he have been killed accidentally by a member of the armed services? John S Sly 

Try the CWGC (Commonwealth War Grave Commission) site. It has a listing of civilians killed in the Wars. Also try the newspapers of the area too. All the best, Edna - Ottawa -----Original Message----- From: sly211@btinternet.com Sent: Wednesday, January 1, 2014 8:54 PM To: devon@rootsweb.com ; cornish-gen@rootsweb.com Subject: [DEV] UNUSUAL CAUSE OF DEATH: WILLIAM JAMES SLY Although this particular branch of the SLY tree comes from the Southampton area rather than from Devon or Cornwall, I hope that fellow listers might be able to help with an unusual cause of death WILLIAM JAMES SLY was born at Bitterne Brewery in July 1887, the son of a licensed victualler. He appears to have followed his father in this trade, and his death certificate records that he died on 22 June 1942 at Bitterne Brewery. The cause of death was stated to be 'Due to War Operations'. I have never come across this before I cannot guess what a 55 year old licensed victualler would have been doing that would cause his death at what appears to be his home that could be attributed to 'war operations'. Service in the Home Guard comes to mind, but I would have expected the cause of death to be something more specific. Could he have been killed accidentally by a member of the armed services? John S Sly ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

He was killed in an air raid.   You may be interested in this website which has a photo of W. J. Sly outside the brewery: http://www.bitterne.net/pubs/brewery.html   Joy ________________________________ From: "sly211@btinternet.com" <sly211@btinternet.com> To: "devon@rootsweb.com" <devon@rootsweb.com>; "cornish-gen@rootsweb.com" <cornish-gen@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, 2 January 2014, 1:54 Subject: [DEV] UNUSUAL CAUSE OF DEATH: WILLIAM JAMES SLY Although this particular branch of the SLY tree comes from the Southampton area rather than from Devon or Cornwall, I hope that fellow listers might be able to help with an unusual cause of death WILLIAM JAMES SLY was born at Bitterne Brewery in July 1887, the son of a licensed victualler. He appears to have followed his father in this trade, and his death certificate records that he died on 22 June 1942 at Bitterne Brewery. The cause of death was stated to be 'Due to War Operations'. I have never come across this before I cannot guess what a 55 year old licensed victualler would have been doing that would cause his death at what appears to be his home that could be attributed to 'war operations'. Service in the Home Guard comes to mind, but I would have expected the cause of death to be something more specific. Could he have been killed accidentally by a member of the armed services? John S Sly  ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Could it be injuries from the great war, 1914 to 1918.That just finished him off at that time.? He wastoo old to have served in the second world war, but could have served in the 1914 war. Marion -----Original Message----- From: sly211@btinternet.com Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 12:54 PM To: devon@rootsweb.com ; cornish-gen@rootsweb.com Subject: [DEV] UNUSUAL CAUSE OF DEATH: WILLIAM JAMES SLY Although this particular branch of the SLY tree comes from the Southampton area rather than from Devon or Cornwall, I hope that fellow listers might be able to help with an unusual cause of death WILLIAM JAMES SLY was born at Bitterne Brewery in July 1887, the son of a licensed victualler. He appears to have followed his father in this trade, and his death certificate records that he died on 22 June 1942 at Bitterne Brewery. The cause of death was stated to be 'Due to War Operations'. I have never come across this before I cannot guess what a 55 year old licensed victualler would have been doing that would cause his death at what appears to be his home that could be attributed to 'war operations'. Service in the Home Guard comes to mind, but I would have expected the cause of death to be something more specific. Could he have been killed accidentally by a member of the armed services? John S Sly ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message