Death abroad

[slaw]

I have a relative who died in Syria in 1972, her body was brought back to the uk for burial. I was wondering if there is a register of deaths abroad as I would like a copy of her death certificate.

[DonM]

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C8397

"The British embassy to the United Arab Republic was at Cairo. From 1964, when Syria separated from Egypt to become the Syrian Arab Republic, the Damascus office became an embassy. Diplomatic and consular relations between Britain and Syria were broken off in June 1967 following the Arab-Israeli war, and were not resumed until May 1973. Diplomatic and consular relations were again severed in October 1986, and were not resumed until 1990."

This suggests there would be no official British record. 

Don

[AllanUK]

As the body was brought back to the UK, the following might assist you assuming you know the place / area / district of burial.

''When a body is returned to the UK, the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the district where the funeral is to take place must be told and will need to issue a certificate before burial can take place. If a cremation is to take place the Home Office also needs to give permission. You can get an application for a Home Office cremation order from your local crematorium''.

[slaw]

Thank you AllenUK, my relative was buried locally so will try local register office

[slaw]

Thank you DonM, I thought this might be the case, but will try local registry office

[AntonyMMM]

As the body was brought back to the UK, the following might assist you assuming you know the place / area / district of burial.

''When a body is returned to the UK, the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the district where the funeral is to take place must be told and will need to issue a certificate before burial can take place. If a cremation is to take place the Home Office also needs to give permission. You can get an application for a Home Office cremation order from your local crematorium''.

This isn't related to a death certificate giving details of the date/place cause of death etc. It is just a certificate issued to authorise the burial/cremation of the body.

It is officially known as a "Certificate of No Liability to Register".

If there is no consular registration of the death (check the Overseas Death Indexes available on FindMyPast), then the only record will be in Syria.

One option may be to check local UK newspapers for any announcement of the death/funeral, which might give more details.

[slaw]

Thank you for replying, I will check with my local register office this week and the library for a look up in the local paper. Will also check find my past.