Death in Aden 1842

[SmallTownGirl]

If someone (b. Scotland) was in the British Army serving in Aden and died there in 1842, and you have the actual date of death, is it possible to buy a copy of the death certificate, please?  I've checked FindMyPast's listings, but he's not there, so don't have any reference numbers to go on

Thanks peeps
STG

[dawnsh]

Hi STG

Who are you looking for and how do you know where he died?

Dawn

[SmallTownGirl]

I'm asking for someone else. 

He says that James Purvis, b. Scotland, died whilst serving with the British Army in Aden on 16 Aug 1842.  He'd like to know whether James died of natural causes or from some military action, and I suspect the only way to find that out is to see the death certificate.

STG

[dawnsh]

But if there isn't an entry in the GRO army deaths index then there won't be a death cert.

You or your friend may have to consider other sources such as things at the British LIbrary

http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/britishinindia/

[SmallTownGirl]

Thanks for trying.

STG

[cemetery friends]

See http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/7bb818bb-784c-47ae-af53-00c7d159c1e2

looks like a search of India Office records necessary

[Christine53]

Is this your man ?

James Purvis , Private H.M. 17th Regt, 36 yrs 5 months , 16th Aug 1842 Aden


There doesn't seem to be a corresponding certificate.

[ShaunJ]

The burial record doesn't give a cause of death but there were only three burials in August 1842 so I would guess that it was disease or natural causes rather than enemy action.

The published history of the regiment does not record any fighting in Aden in 1842.

"On the 2nd of June, 1841, the regiment left Poona, 1841 and arrived at Bombay in ten days. On the 22nd of September the headquarters and four companies embarked from Bombay .... and on the 2nd of October arrived at Aden, the capital of a pleasant and fertile district near the mouth of the Red Sea, where a detachment of the regiment arrived from Bombay in October, and another in November.

On the evening of the 5th of October, 1841, a detachment, amounting to about six hundred men, selected from the troops at Aden, proceeded, under the command of Lieut.Colonel Pennycuick, to attack an Arab force, which had caused much inconvenience by preventing supplies being received from the country. After a severe skirmish of two hours' duration, in the hottest part of the following day, the troops destroyed the Arab post of Sheik Othman, and returned to Aden on the evening of the 6th, having traversed upwards of forty miles of ground in about twenty-two hours.

The head-quarters of the regiment remained at Aden, in Arabia Felix, during the year 1842. In
February a detachment proceeded from Bombay to Poona, and in November a detachment marched from Poona to Ahmednuggur : in December four officers and thirty-four rank and file arrived at Aden from Poona.

On the 18th of December, 1842, the venerable General Sir Frederick Augustus Wetherall, G.C.H.,
after a service of sixty-seven years, and attaining the age of eighty-eight years, died, and Her Majesty Queen Victoria was pleased to confer the colonelcy of the regimenton Lieut. -General Sir Peregrine Maitland, 1843 K.C.B., from the seventy-sixth regiment, on the 2nd of January, 1843.

1844 During the years 1843 and 1 844 the regiment remained at Aden. In July and August, 1844, the detached wing at Ahmednuggur was affected with cholera. In the course of fifteen days one hundred and eight cases occurred ; the deaths during the period amounted to thirty-two. Amongst them was Brevet Lieut.Colonel Deshon, an officer of the highest talents and character. "

https://archive.org/stream/recordofseventeen00canniala/recordofseventeen00canniala_djvu.txt

[SmallTownGirl]

Fabulous link. 

 Thanks ShaunJ 

 Hope my pal appreciates it 

STG