The requirement to have either a doctor's certificate of death by natural causes or a coroner's order for burial was introduced in 1926.
Legal changes before that were:
1538- to Births & Deaths Registration Act 1836, a parish-based system
1836: No burial without a registrar's certificate or coroner's order for burial. However this only applied to deceased people who had been baptised within the Church of England (so therefore not unbaptised infants or people of other reigious faiths/ denominations). It did require a certificate from a medical practitioner but didn't specify that they must have immediate knowledge of the deceased's final illness, or be registered/ qualified practitioners. Medical certificates were therefore issued by midwives, pharmacists, local healers (and probably the odd witch doctor).
1874: Law changed to specify that the medical certificate be issued by a person registered with the General Medical Council
1881: Section11 Burials Act 1881 (as explained by S2 Burials Act 1881):
where the deceased was attended during their last illness by a registered medical practitioner the person registering the death had to provide a medical certificate of the cause of death when registering the death. If there was no such medical attendance, the registrar had to accept the informant's explanation of the cause of death.
In 1885 the law was changed to require registrars to report uncertified deaths to the coroner but the requirement was not universally observed.
The law was changed again in 1926 to make it illegal to register a death without a doctor's certificate of death by natural causes or a coroner's order for burial.
They don't call me portia for nothing!
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