Why no RCE ?

[g forgeron]

On the death certificate of George Scotland in 1874 the cause of death is given as "drowning". There is nothing else stated. All the other death certificates I have come across which involve a sudden death have an entry in the RCEs, which leads on to an inquest which gives a fuller explanation .

Why not in this case?

[Billyblue]

Drowning is a pretty obvious cause of death.
If there were no suspicious circumstances, there was probably no need for an inquest.

Dawn M
PS What does RCE mean?

[anne_p]

I also hold a death cert from 1877 where the person died from " Drowning. Sudden"
There is no RCE attached to this either

RCE: Record Of Corrected Entries

[carol8353]

Register of corrected entries. 

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=551&1314

[Elwyn Soutter]

Scotland doesn’t have inquests, and so there wouldn’t have been one. In some serious cases the death is reported to the Sheriff who conducts a fatal accident enquiry, but for most sudden deaths a report by the police to the Procurator Fiscal suffices. So no inquest and so the death may just have been registered like any other death, with no need for an entry in the RCE.

[g forgeron]

Sorry Elwyn,I made a mistake & called it an "inquest". The fact remains that I have two other death certificates where the deceased died suddenly and in each case an inquiry  - call it what you will - was held which established and shewed where, when, and indeed what the person died of. This death certificate just shows what he died of, nothing else, and I find that most unusual.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Understood, but my point really remains the same. A Sheriff's enquiry into a sudden or unexplained death is the exception in Scotland. Most deaths don't merit one. A drowning in itself wouldn't need an enquiry unless there were suspicious circumstances. (In contrast to England & Wales where there would routinely be an inquest).

[RJ_Paton]

There would only be an RCE if the original entry needed to be amended for any reason - if the original cause of death was given as drowning and no further information was uncovered which would need a correction made to that entry there would simply have been no need for any RCE.

There appears to be some confusion between an RCE (entry in the Register of Corrected Entries) and an FAI (Fatal Accident Inquiry). FAI's are relatively rare even today. The investigation of certain categories of deaths in Scotland falls upon the Procurator Fiscal (PF) for that area. The death itself could be registered before the conclusion of any enquiry and so if the enquiry uncovered further information which meant that the original data was incorrect then an entry was made correcting it and hence the RCE. (conversely if no correction was made there would have been no need for any alterations to the records etc)

[Forfarian]

All the other death certificates I have come across which involve a sudden death have an entry in the RCEs, which leads on to an inquest which gives a fuller explanation .

There are no such things as inquests in Scotland; it is a term that has no meaning in Scots Law.

If there is some doubt about a death, or suspicious circumstances, there may be a Fatal Accident Inquiry or other investigation in a court of law, but this is not called an inquest.

If the cause of death is obvious, there is no need for any legal proceedings to take place, so there will be no RCE.

You may sometimes be able to find more information about the circumstances in an item in a local newspaper.