Back in September I promised an update including any further information that might be obtained from Teddy’s death certificate. It was a little disappointing, but such as it is I include it here.

Teddy died on 27 February 2001 in Hillingdon Hospital, Middlesex. The informant on his death certificate was a lady who gave an address in Hillingdon which turned out to be a community centre; as Teddy would have been just a month short of his 80th birthday at the time of his death, it seems reasonable to assume he was attending a day centre or a pensioners’ lunch when he was taken ill – and that either the manager of the centre or a member of staff went with him in the ambulance and was either present at the time of death or was listed in his paperwork as next of kin.

I have tried writing to this lady at the address given but – unsurprisingly – have had no reply so far.

The only further information yielded by the death certificate relates to Teddy’s address (a ground floor flat, probably Council-owned), his occupation – given as ‘Railwayman (retired)’, which is interesting – and the cause of death, which was ‘metastatic sarcoma’. It should be possible in due course to ferret out the details of Teddy’s employment as a railwayman, but other than that – unless/until his RAF service records become available – it seems as if we have reached a dead end. The only other possibility might be reaching out to a local newspaper or radio station covering the Hillingdon area, and that is certainly something we are well prepared to do when the time comes.