Outram Barracks, Lucknow, India between the wars

[Malcolm Butcher]

I now have the previews from the newspaper and I'm planning to get the full reports in a couple of hours' time. I can't get the free look ups at home sadly. Watch this space and thank you all for your interest and help.

[Andy J2022]

As you will have probably seen by now, his friend Pte William George Hockaday was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison on 24 June 1932. I would assume that the prosecution was unable to prove that Hockaday had intended to kill Richards, hence he was not found guilty on the alternative charge of murder.
The previous newspaper report on the day of the trial mentions that Pte Richards died instantly.

[Malcolm Butcher]

Thanks again Andy. This morning I went to the local library and logged into the newspaper archive but it wouldn't let me look at the Civil & Military Gazette. I came home and subscribed to the archive. I now have the full story via four articles. I have sent for Edward's army record which will probably cost me thirty quid, but I think it'll be worth it. As a side issue I am hoping to find out what happened to Edward's mother Catherine, my great aunt. With a bit of luck there might be something in the record that will give me more information. 24 hours ago I had no idea about this matter and now, thanks to a handful of great people, I have a really interesting piece of family history. Thank you all again.

[Malcolm Butcher]

Hi Andy. It's Monday morning now and I'm struggling to find out how to order this death certificate. I can't get to the page that you copied and posted the other day. Would you be able to walk me through the process, step by step, please? I'm not particularly thick; I just can't find what to do.

In other news, I spoke to my mum this morning and relayed the update on Teddy's (that's what the family called him) death. She wasn't at all fazed and put it all down to the adults at the time wanting to soften the blow for the children. As a young girl of no more than 11 years of age my mum used to write to Teddy in the 1920s/30s which is how she remembers his address and army number. She reeled it off for me over the phone this morning.

[Andy J2022]

Hi Malcolm,

Happy to help if I can. First of all, are you registered with the GRO for their online service? I assume you are. Once you are logged in you should see a page headed What would you like to do?. On the right hand side is a list of options. Number 3, immediately under the words Main Menu, should read Place an Order. Clicking on that option should bring you to the page (or something similar to it) shown in the image I posted yesterday. There should be three options in the box in the centre under where it says Where was the event registered? Click on the third one, Outside the United Kingdom and registered by the British Forces, Consul or High Commission and this should bring up some new boxes underneath. Select death in the What type of event was it? box, then put in the year in the next box which appears. This should bring up the penultimate set of questions, entitled How can the event be identified? Select I know the GRO reference and then fill in the boxes on the last form, using the GRO reference 142.

Let me know if you experience something different to my description. Otherwise, I hope that works for you.

[Malcolm Butcher]

Thank you once again Andy. I hadn't registered with the GRO until 15 minutes ago and now I have placed the order exactly as you advised. This Rootschat thing is terrific and I'm really grateful for all the help I've been given.

[Andy J2022]

That's great. I doubt if the death certificate will give a lot more information over what you already know from the newspapers. But with luck his service records will provide lots of extra details about him and his time in the Army.

[Malcolm Butcher]

I suspect you're right about the certificate and I hope you're right about the army record, assuming I can get a copy. It can take several weeks and I'll let you know when I have any updates.

[Malcolm Butcher]

Update:

I have heard from the army that the average time for dealing with requests for records is six months. Never mind, it'll be an early Christmas present.

I tried to upload the four newspaper articles that I found but the file is too big.

Thank you again to each of you that helped me with this and I'll hope to give a further update as and when I hear more.