death certificate

does anybody know if a death certificate is a legal and binding document.

the reason i ask is because for the last 2 years i have been trying to get the commonwealth war graves comission to amend there records for an ancestor of mine.
according to his death certificate he was killed in action on the 1/7/1916 but the cwgc say he died on the 9/7/1916.
his medal index cards and his battalion records also say he was killed on the 1/7/1916,copies of which i have sent to the cwgc.
but this morning i was informed that death certificates and the other things i sent to them where not enough proof to justify them changing there records.

i always thought that a death certificate was legal proof of date of death.

thanks
andy

[leef78]

[QUOTE=andy 1]does anybody know if a death certificate is a legal and binding document.


The plain short answer is YES they are legal and binding documents much the same as a birth certificate

[Salu]

There are perhaps some added complications. As far as I am aware the current legislation comes under the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1926. Your ancestor not only died before this but was apparantly an enlisted soldier which may change procedure as they were in the armed forces.

A job for a solicitor maybe?

[Maurice]

I would guess this is a complex business especially after all these years. When you think of the horrors of the war in the trenches in WWI it is not surprising that actual dates of death got confused.

It sounds like the CWGC is a bureaucratic organisation to me.

[bonzoe]

Originally Posted by Maurice

I would guess this is a complex business especially after all these years. When you think of the horrors of the war in the trenches in WWI it is not surprising that actual dates of death got confused.

It sounds like the CWGC is a bureaucratic organisation to me.

As you say, the horrors of war etc muddy the waters, but don't knock the CWGC they do a damned good job tending all those war graves.