Deciphering some information on death certificate

[overlandermatt]

I have a death certificate that I am trying to find some information from.

I am looking for Joseph Pennington's line of work - I think it reads Ship's Corporal and then two letters either RN or RM? All the girls in the family married marines...

The cause of death is Parturition Typhoid Fever 16 days. I'm not really sure what this means - that she died of typhoid 16 days after giving birth? What a tragic tale if so. Life was hard in Victorian times.

[ShaunJ]

To me it looks more like RA than RM.  There is an RM on the line above to compare it with.

RA would be Royal Artillery.

[Jebber]

It means she died after 16  days of Typhoid. The number denotes the length of time someone suffered from an illness.

[ShaunJ]

1894 article from the Lancet on typhoid fever following parturition: https://ia800708.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/22/items/crossref-pre-1909-scholarly-works/10.1016%252Fs0140-6736%252801%252959462-3.zip&file=10.1016%252Fs0140-6736%252801%252959839-6.pdf

[Ray T]

To me it looks more like RA than RM.  There is an RM on the line above to compare it with.

RA would be Royal Artillery.

Isn’t it more likely to be “RN”?

[emeltom]

I'd go for RN. After all how many Royal Artillery members are likely to be Ship's Corporals? Not many Ships in the Royal Artillery.

[GR2]

It's RN.

It seems a ship's corporal was a position, not an actual rank. A petty officer assisting the master-at-arms.

https://victorianweb.org/victorian/history/navy/22.html

[ShaunJ]

Could be this chap - born Rochdale in 1848.  He was a Sergeant in 1876 and on his way up to Colour Sergeant:

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9732044

[overlandermatt]

Thanks for the suggestions. I know almost nothing about Joseph Pennington. All I do know is that he married Selina Pope in 1874 then she died in 1876.

The RMLI man has a date of 1871 for when he marries and is a sergeant by 1876... How many Joseph Pennington could there be?

The clue is presumably in the marriage certificate...