Ernest Haylett"s Death Certificate.

My father's old Arab chest, bought off the nahoda (captain) of a dhow in Zanzibar harbour, continues to reveal items from our family's history. The other day I found this, the death certificate issued for Captain Ernest Haylett when his body arrived in the UK at the beginning of October 1930. As can be seen, he died on 30th September 1930 at sea aboard a mail-carrying ship, the Highland Princess, and the internet soon produced.... 

....a picture of the ship. Taken in 1932, she's seen here in the colours of the Nelson Line, the funnel from top being black-white-black-white-red. In that year she was bought by the Royal Mail Line but she was carrying mail in 1930 on the London - Vigo - Las Palmas - Rio de Janeiro - Montevideo - Buenos Aires route served by the company.

This is the location at sea, latitude 44.58ºN longitude 8.04ºW, where he died. The ship would have just left Vigo, which is to the south of La Coruna. Normally the captain would have buried Ernest at sea but my grandmother insisted the body be brought back to England, and he was buried in the City of London cemetery in Wanstead, close to where she lived.

One of the causes of Ernest's death is recorded as colitis. My father told me that Ernest had suffered from ulcers for years and was reduced in his last days to a diet of milk and whisky. Ulcerative colitis is now thought to be an autoimmune disease. The main symptoms when a flare-up occurs are recurring diarrhoea, which may contain blood, mucus or pus, tummy pain, and the need to empty your bowels frequently; and these may be brought on by stress. See NHS website here.