Genealogy Chat

Bear with me this could take a while:-

My Grear Uncle Stepen McQuinn was in the Royal Navy during the first world war. I have found his death on CWGC 26/10/1915 but when I downloaded his service record it said:- Invalided Chronic Eczema 24/08/1915 I received his death certificate today and he did die on the 26/10/1915 cause of death (believe it or not) ECZEMA. The thing that is puzzling me is:- if he was invalided out and did not die with a war related injury, why is his name on the CWGC? Anyone come across anything similar Pat.

I don't know but eczema can be brought on or worsened by stress, irritants or allergens - perhaps the war enhanced an existing condition and indirectly caused his death. Did he die in hospital? Maybe see if you can get his medical records to see if you can find out what caused such a bad outbreak of eczema to kill him. My great grandfather's cause of death on his death cert said 'Has Diabetes' (don't lots of people) but when I eventually obtained his medical records, it turned out he was an alcoholic who had fallen and hit his head, causing him to be hospitalised and the alchololism worsened his diabetes and ultimately caused his death 1 month after his fall. Sam x

I believe that's quite normal. If someone was in the armed forces and died during the war, they're on the CWGC, even though they didn't die of a war injury. I've seen quite a few cases like that. Margaret

Pat Dont forget the conditions that these soldiers had to live in, cuts would be infected etc. It is most likely that what was only a case of slight ezma would have escalated quite rapidly. Even now people can have it very severe, would have been doubley worse back then. Kathy

Thanks Margaret I thought they only put someone on the CWGC if they actually died fighting or injured and died later, so thanks again. Thanks Sam, how would I go about getting his medical records ? Pat.

My grandfather died just after the war from TB. His ship was sunk and his condition worsened. Although he didn't die in active service or during the war he is still listed on the CWGC site. Rose

My husbands fther died in 1947 as a result of a disease he caught when he was serving in the Raf in Africa in WW2 He is on the Cwgc site Bren

Well my GGdads death cert told me which hospital he had died in. I then used the Hospital Records database on the National Achives website to find where the relevant records were held (Staffordshire Records Office). I contacted them, they had to contact the relevant Health Authority (as the records were less than 100 yrs old) eventually I got permission to access them so the Records Office photocopied them and posted them to me. And only charged me £3.12 - I was well impressed! Sam x