Cause of Death on certificates

[Gwyn in Kent]

From what year was a doctor's confirmation of cause of death necessary on a death certificate.

My most recently bought one gives cause of death as 'probably decay of nature'.. This was 1885.

[Jessbowbag]

Wikipedia says .....

Beginning in 1874, a doctor’s certificate was necessary for the issuance of a death certificate (prior to that, no cause of death needed to be given).

not sure thats the answer to the Q though, quite

[KiteRunner]

Hmmm, well, I have one from 1879 which says "Debility and decay of nature" with no doctor's name given, and one from 1891 certified by the doctor, so I would guess somewhere between those dates, but will have to check. It could just be that they weren't enforcing it properly in the first few years after the law changed?

[KiteRunner]

Ah, according to the Certificate Tutorial on clara.net it is still possible for a death cert not to have the cause of death certified by a named doctor:

Death Certificate Tutorials

[Gwyn in Kent]

Thank you both for your help.

Interesting information on that site Kate.'
I have seen 'decay of Nature' before, ...but not preceded by 'probably'.
Nothing about this woman has been easy..... not even her birth name. - Jane JONES.

[Penelope]

Redacted

[Little Nell]

Mind you, even modern certs which list 3 or 4 causes of death can be equally vague about why a person actually died.

[Gwyn in Kent]

Someone told me that you should read modern death certificates in reverse order.

ie. 1a) might say pneumonia which will be what actually caused the death, although b) and c) will show the underlying reason that pneumonia set in and perhaps show a disease, or whatever.

Not sure if this is actually correct, but seems to make sense.