The Coroner

The Coroner

By County Councillor Denis Hart

August 1988

The post of Coroner was created by Henry II originally to raise revenue in England and Wales because a foreigner was charged double the cost of burying a true Brit, and only since 1750 could he charge his expenses and only since 1888, exactly a hundred years ago, was he made the responsibility of the County Council for payment of these, reporting directly to the Home Secretary as the Queen's responsible Minister on the facts of the death of her subjects at home or abroad since the decision of the House of Lords in the Helen Smith case.

Treasure trove, which is the property of a long dead subject, belongs to the Queen although to remove temptation from Her Majesty's subjects who find it the Coroner awards part of its value to the finder. There are 155 of them, paid for this work by the County Council since 1888 and in Bucks there are two, responsible for the North which is the area down to a line just south of Aylesbury, and for the South also for the Queen's personal Household. He joins the other personal representatives of the Queen: the Lord Lieutenant, the Sheriff and the County Law Officer and must hold himself available at any hour to carry out this duty and, since he is paid only whilst at work normally combines the duty with a normal practice as a senior doctor or lawyer with at least five years experience. It is his decision whether or not to accept a doctor's certificate of death due to normal causes or to appoint a Post Mortem to establish the cause of death and to appoint suitable experts or a jury to help him establish the facts of death. Only if death occurs within 14 days of treatment can a doctor sign a death certificate and if death occurs during a railway or aircraft journey, at work, or through industrial disease he has special responsibilities, as he has with violent death anywhere.

When the post was first created he had to decide who paid for burial and the post exists only where English law runs, being a typical English adaptation of an ancient office primarily used nowadays to ensure that we cannot be shuffled off this mortal coil too easily, so although we may never meet him he must certify our seemly departure. He has the power granted by the Sovereign to summons anyone to help him in his work and may retain a body indefinitely until he can certify the cause of death beyond reasonable doubt.