Register of Corrected Entries - Deaths

Deaths must be registered within eight days. In cases of accidents and sudden or violent deaths it isn’t always possible to establish the exact cause of death in time. The procurator fiscal or other officials report the revised information to the registrar who records it in the Register of Corrected Entries.

In this example the cause of death in the original register entry is given as “injury to scalp, meningitis”.  The RCE shows that the fatal injury was the result of external violence and that the post-mortem was carried out by Henry Littlejohn and Joseph Bell MD.  Henry Littlejohn became the first Medical Officer of Health for Edinburgh.  Joseph Bell is believed to be the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

If you find an entry which refers to a jury and it is dated 1895 or later you may find further information in our Fatal Accident Inquiry Records.