Genealogy Chat

I'm trying to find out more about a soldiers death in 1947.
He was accidently shot and killed in his army barracks somewhere in the Newcastle upon Tyne area. I have looked in Findmypast newspaper section and also have signed up for 3 free searches in the British Newspaper Archive (though that is hard to search) . I can't find any mention of his death.

Is it possible that his death was in a local newspaper, but not been published online? I would have thought his death would have been published?

Try contacting the local newspaper and asking if someone would be able to search the archives

Get a copy of his death cert for accurate date and location info before contacting the paper, or they may not be able/ willing to search

Thanks ErikaH. That's a good idea, and I'll follow up on that.

As he was a soldier and the death occurred in an Army barracks, it is quite likely that nobody local knew about it.

His next-of-kin would have been informed, but they could have lived miles away from Newcastle. I think it would only have been mentioned in a newspaper if the relatives put an obituary/death notice in their local paper.

Don't forget that the war had only been over a couple of years, and soldiers' deaths, even accidental ones, were not as newsworthy as they are now.

Have you got his death cert . The informant could be a coroner and court records may have survived

Thanks Andysmum for your input. He and his family lived in Co Durham, so not far from wherever his Army billet was based somewhere in Newcastle area.
His death index says he died in Newcastle T.

I guess you are right that it wouldn't have been newsworthy then.

Hi Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it .
I haven't got his death certificate, but I know the exact date of death from the War Graves Commision site. He is not related to me, but he is of interest to one of my family members - though we don't want to fork out money for his death certificate.
I think I might try and go to the local record office and look at the newspapers there, to see if his family put in a death notice. I am hoping to find out more about his accident .

Main libraries local to the event or to the soldier's family may have old copies of local newspapers, either in paper form or on film.

I was able to find quite a lot locally for a death of another board member's family by searching papers in the town library.

Hi Gwyn in Kent,
Thanks for reminding me that the local libraries have newspapers too. I'll go down that route first, as the library is nearer to me than the Record office.

Do you know which regiment he was in? If so, I think your best bet of finding out what happened would be the regimental archives.

I have just asked OH what he thinks. He was Navy, not Army, but the Services all treat such things in a similar way. He reckons there would have been an internal enquiry, but then the local coroner would have been involved, to provide an official cause of death and then a death certificate could be issued.

So it is possible that the coroner's findings were published in the local paper.

Hi Andysmum. I saw on the Commonwealth grave site that he was in the
Royal Army Ordnance Corps. So I will have to google tomorrow and see if I can find how I get in touch with their regimental archives.

Thank you to you and your husband for letting me know that information, and also about the coroner's findings may be in the local paper.

On 5 April 1993, following the Options for Change review, the Royal Army Ordnance Corps united with the Royal Corps of Transport, the Royal Pioneer Corps, the Army Catering Corps, and the Postal and Courier Service of the Royal Engineers, to form the Royal Logistic Corps.

Thank you very much for that info ErikaH.