Charles' daughter-in-law, my grandmother Elizabeth
BROWN (nee
FAGE) recounted that her husband Horace's father died of cancer around ten years after he married, in 1903, in Bedford Hospital. It has taken some time to track down his death, but a burial record in the parish register at Sandy kept at
BLARS suggested a date of June 1904. A check in the GRO highlighted only one likely record for a Charles Brown in the April-June quarter of 1904 of around the right age (early 40s), but his death had been registered in London (St Sepulchre and All Hallows). It was worth a shot, and the resulting certificate shows that the risk was worth it. Charles
BROWN died aged 41 years of 'carcinoma' (although of what is illegible on the certificate) at St Bartholomew's Hospital in the city of London. His occupation is described as Platelayer, G.N. Railwy, his address Cambridge Road, Sandy, Beds. So that's the connection I needed. The death was registered on 25th June 1904, the same day on which his burial was recorded in the parish register. His body must have been transferred home to Sandy - an expensive business in those days, presumably. He left his widow with seven young children, including George, born just three months before his father died.