Thanks for checking Boo ... It's a difficult one for sure. We are located in Canada so not able to check the library records in person. As you say, trawling through 3 months of papers would be a big task. I was hoping there was on online source we haven't found. I suppose getting a death certificate might be a good next step. Is it possible to order one without the exact date of death.
Much appreciated.
Given you are so far away, I would go and look for you but I am in Scotland and its a fair trek for me - though not so far as you!
It is possible to get a death cert with just the year and quarter, though there is a cost of £9.25.
https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/ Go to that site and you can order a copy using the details you have from Free BMD.
Armed with the actual date of death, come back and request a look up in the local newspapers ( most likely to be the Newcastle Evening Chronicle) to see IF there is a death notice in the newspapers.
Though do be aware that it will, most likely, just give details of where the burial was to take place, In my (limited) experience obituaries, as perhaps may have been printed in Canadian newspapers are rare in the UK unless the person was a local dignitary or something like that, we tended to just say Fred Bloggs died on such and such a date, funeral will take place at x, followed by burial/cremation at y.
Though I didn't find an entry in the Books of Remembrance for either Crematorium, that doesn't mean that he wasn't cremated, could just be that the family chose not to place an entry in the book.
Boo