Ah well - Walter Hunter is shown as a GP in Nottingham in the 1881 census, and appears in the 1883 medical register - he was a Glasgow graduate. I always knew they had strange diseases up there!
(DOI before anyone shouts at me -- I used to live in Glesga!)
I better sent it to Glasgow then. But a thought has come to me and I have checked this in my 1890 Esquire Within book. So it is much as it is today generally. In 1890 an Occupier of a house in which a person died must within 5 notify the Registrar of the District. There would be a Death Certificate completed by the doctor in attendance. The informant would take all this to the Registrar who fills out the Entry of Death.
The registrar is not a medical officer and can only copy down what the doctor has written. This is the week link. Doctors are not known for their good handwriting and I don't think the 19th century was any different.
That would explain the good writing on the certificate that I have and yet the cause of death makes no sense. We would have to sight the original death certificate written by the doctor.
Is that good thinking?
Robert...
