Death registration 1854, at sea or overseas?

[daggers]

I am hoping to find the registration of the death of Ford Ainslie, 6th Officer in ss 'Prince' which was lost in a storm off Balaklava in the Crimean War, on 14 Nov 1854. He was 18. The ship was carrying stores for the army and may have been under government contract. I do not think she was made part of the Royal Navy.
Would the registration [if done] be among overseas or marine deaths? Any clues welcome.
[I do have some accounts of the wreck from newspapers.]
Daggers

PS The system seems very slow this morning.

[dickiesam]

Hi Daggers,

Death: AINSLIE, Ford
Date of death: 14 November 1854
Port belonging to: London
Ship's name: Prince
Series: BT153 - Registers of Wages and Effects of Deceased Seamen
Box: 0002; Page: 22

Image follows!

[dickiesam]

Ainslie Ford is the 4th entry from top of page. I have the complete page if you need it, all crew of the Prince who died in the sinking.

[daggers]

Thanks very much for that, which adds a little to what I have. I would still like to know how his death was registered, and if his body was found, which a death cert might show.
D

[dickiesam]

The above death record is the only one held by the GRO. There are no hits in overseas or consular deaths. I believe that if there was a death entry there would have been a body. The page I posted simply has a column for the date the record of his wages and effects were sent to the Board of Trade.

[daggers]

Thanks again. I must draw a line there now.

D

[Blue70]

Liverpool Mercury, Tuesday, December 26, 1854






Blue

[daggers]

Thanks again. I had that one and wondered why the two names were entered together in the notice. No family link that I know of.

D

[dickiesam]

Thanks again. I had that one and wondered why the two names were entered together in the notice. No family link that I know of.
D

I would assume the two names are in the same paragraph because they were both on the same ship, although there is a total of 21 deaths from the sinking of the Prince recorded on the same page. The remaining 19 names may not have reached the papers, or was the Mercury reporting the deaths of 'officers' only?

[daggers]

At first I thought these might be paid-for notices, but you have made me think otherwise. I shall have a look at some Mercury pages...
D

[Katie]

I had a list of sailors from the wages and effects of deceased seamen and cross checked the Marine Death Fiches at Liverpool and they were not recorded, I did raise the matter with the GRO when they were at a fair, they said their names should be recorded and I promised to bring the list in so she could double check. Never got back to me. I mean if the family had the seaman insured would they not have needed a death certificate to claim the loot?

[dickiesam]

I had a list of sailors from the wages and effects of deceased seamen and cross checked the Marine Death Fiches at Liverpool and they were not recorded, I did raise the matter with the GRO when they were at a fair, they said their names should be recorded and I promised to bring the list in so she could double check. Never got back to me. I mean if the family had the seaman insured would they not have needed a death certificate to claim the loot?

I believe the principle was up to 1902, no body... no death certificate. A presumption of death could be made by a 'higher authority' such as the Board of Trade or a court. Then in 1902 came the Benjamin Order....

From: http://www.ericbutler.com.au/benjamin-order/
An order of the kind sought known as a Benjamin order is so styled after the case of In re Benjamin; Neville v Benjamin [1902] 1 Ch 723, a decision of Joyce J. In that case, the administrator did not know whether a beneficiary had perished, and, if so, whether he had done so before the testator. Joyce J held that the beneficiary should be presumed to be dead, and, there having been no claim by any executor of the estate of the beneficiary, that the administrator could proceed on the basis that the beneficiary had not survived the testator. Rein J in Warwick John Nelson, Re the Estate of the late Kevin Stack [2011] NSWSC 764 at 3.

The current Lord Lucan had to wait at least 7 years before the House of Lords ruled on his application to declare his father, the infamous Lord Lucan wanted by Scotland Yard for the murder of the family nanny, deceased so he could inherit the title. I read relatively recently that a coroner can now declare a person dead despite the absence of a body.

[daggers]

Interesting stuff, worth remembering in case something similar comes along.
I do not think my man will have had much to his name, so probably no will or even administration.
D

[dickiesam]

Interesting stuff, worth remembering in case something similar comes along.
I do not think my man will have had much to his name, so probably no will or even administration.
D

A declaration of death in the absence of a body impinged on my mother's family during the May Blitz of 1941. Two of her brothers were killed on the 6th of May. The body of one, Robbie, was found and identified, but his brother Tommy was never found and identified. They were both married with children. Robbie's wife had a death certificate and was officially a widow. Tommy's wife was in limbo. A coroner's court some years later declared that the probability was that Tommy was among the un-named male deaths recorded by the GRO where identification had been impossible with the technology then available. He was declared Deceased and his wife was free to marry again. That marriage was the spur that took her and her husband-to-be to the court.