Have you tried variants of his surname? If you use the Ancestry site they don't always do a wonderful job with their transcriptions and I've been thrown off course on a number of occasions with wrong names, particularly if it's unusual and with place spellings, some of them have been ridiculous I have for example found on one census Bayswater shown as Barpwater and Dublin as Bublin. God knows who they use! Nelliemoser has already pointed out could he have been abroad at the time of death, I didn't know registration was not compulsory before 1875, that explains a lot! Have you tried the Familysearch Seventh Day Adventist site?, it's free and I have found it quite helpful at times. Regarding the birth registration, illegitimacy sometimes meant the birth was registered under the mother's surname. Common surnames such as Smith can be a bit of a pain. Everyone's got a Smith somewhere, I know I have, but I'm lucky I've got a lot of foreigners in my family, which is good from unusual name point of view, but bad because they were transitory. It's so frustrating not being able to find what you are looking for. Good luck with your quest.