LONDON ASSOCIATION OF FUNERAL DIRECTORS
Representing Funeral Directors & Associated Businesses In London & The Home Counties
ABOUT | HISTORY
LAFD HISTORY
The British Undertakers Association, a trade association, was founded in 1905, within which London members formed
the London Division. Many of the firms involved are still members, although not all remain under the same family control.
In December 1935, the BUA was renamed the National Association of Funeral Directors, with its London Division becoming the London Association of Funeral Directors.
From the outset, London Division was particularly active, with much early discussion on the simpler ‘New Funeral’. An early initiative, to demonstrate a funeral could be obtained from any Member at a fair and reasonable rate, was the publication of a maximum funeral cost. In 1923, the revised agreed rate for a full basic Elm coffin funeral with “machine coach or car and pair” was £8.0s.0d. Interestingly, the same price pertained 12 years later, at the time of the Association’s name change.
LAFD became the only part of the National Association to negotiate with the Union and be an official Employers Association. Indeed it was a London member who, feeling strongly that the whole trade would benefit from providing better rewards and conditions for their staff, assisted in the formation of the Union itself. Typical working hours at that time were based on a 6 ½ working day week!
LAFD ANNUAL BANQUET
By Brian Parsons
The London Association’s annual banquet is the longest-running social function for funeral directors in this country.
Over the years this convivial gathering has always attracted a large number of guests who have enjoyed generous hospitality
in opulent surroundings. This short history tells its story.
THE FIRST BANQUET
The London Centre of the British Undertakers’ Association (as the LAFD was then called) held its first dinner on 6 May 1907 at the Holborn Viaduct hotel. In the unfortunate absence due to illness of the London President, James Hurry, the chair was occupied by Alderman Herbert Hollick Kenyon of JH Kenyon. Frederick Field was the vice chairman. The President of the BUA, Henry Sherry was in attendance and after the toasts he spoke of the achievements of the Association since its founding in June 1905. The gathering was then entertained to a programme of music performed by youthful members of the Waters’ family. Charles W Waters was an undertaker and coffin manufacturer in Bow, east London and the small instrumental ensemble (two violins, two violas, cornet and piano) was conducted by none other than his daughter, Miss Elsie Waters. Then aged thirteen, in years to come Elsie and her sister, Doris, would form a duo that by the 1920s had acquired celebrity status in the music halls. Their brother Jack, who later changed his surname to Warner, became a familiar face as the policeman in the 1960s TV series, Dixon of Dock Green.
The names of the 36 attending the dinner form a roll call of luminaries from the London funeral trade; many of the names can still be found today. Messrs Nodes, Sherry, Kenyon, Bond, Kellaway, France and Crook and were present along with others whose businesses have been consigned to history. Tickets were 6 shillings or 11 shillings and sixpence for a double ticket. Following its success, the London Centre decided to make the banquet an annual occasion. In 1908 under the presidency of Frederick Field the event was once again held at the Holborn Viaduct Hotel with music provided by Mr EW Waters’ Bijou Band. The evening concluded with the singing of Auld Land Syne.
In 1910 the Holborn Restaurant became the venue for the annual dinner. 100 members of the Centre gathered on 31 March and were serenaded by the Waters’ family in addition to The Merrymakers Quartette. Reputed to be the largest and also the last of the grand Edwardian restaurant blocks, diners found themselves in palatial surroundings at the Holborn Restaurant. Built between 1883-5 it contained twenty-one banqueting rooms, fourteen restaurants, numerous private dining rooms and three Masonic temples (with pipe organs). The sumptuous interior was decorated with marble from the Pyrenees, enamelled mosaic, majolica and stunning chandeliers. The Annual Dinner continued at this location until 1920 when allegiance was shifted to the nearby Connaught Rooms. Sadly, the Holborn Restaurant was demolished in 1955. An image included here of the 1913 dinner only hints at the splendid interior of the restaurant. On that occasion guests enjoyed:
Advertisement for the first dinner in 1907
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Oysters
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Clear Deslignae
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Velours Cream
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Boiled Salmon and Hollandaise Sauce
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Cucumber Salad
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Whitebait
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Vol-au-Vent Toulouse
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Mutton Cutlets Alscaienne
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French Beans
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Roast Chicken with watercress
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Salad
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Diplomatic Pudding
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Comtesee Marie Bombe
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Wafers, Dessert, Coffee
The Waters' family orchestra with Elsie Water (centre)
The BUA Dinner in 1913 at the Holborn Restaurant
This was the last social event before the Great War and it would be February 1919 before a ‘London “Victory” Dinner’ was held with FE Smith of the London Necropolis Company as the president of the London Centre. Charles W Tait, the BUA president and well over 100 guests were present when Harold Kenyon proposed a toast to, “The Imperial Forces.” A hat collection for BUA funds raised £38 6s before a Miss Dalby sang a selection of songs including, “Tommy comes marching home.”
For the next twenty years the banquet continued annually with attendances increasing each year. In January 1924 some 300 were present at the Hotel Cecil; a similar number attended four years later at the Hotel Victoria on Northumberland Avenue. HN Allen of Farebrother’s in Kingston was the London president with TL Pakeman of Bristol the BUA president. Entertainment was provided by Robert Easton who sang Mendelssohn’s “I am a Roamer” and a sea shanty before dancing to Sidney Jerome’s band and cabaret by Gordon Marsh and the Marshmallow Girls.
‘AN AMUSING INCIDENT’
At this dinner an amusing incident occurred, as The Undertakers’ Journal reported:
General Sir and Lady Newton were announced and hospitably received by Mr and Mrs Allen. They then proceeded to the dining hall but failed to trace their names at any of the tables. Upon further inquiry it was discovered that the function at which they were both expected was at a different hotel altogether. Both entered into the spirit of the thing heartily and were not in any way disconcerted at having been received at a gathering of undertakers.
TO PARK LANE
From 1928 the annual dinner remained at the Hotel Victoria until a move was made to the venue that is now recognised as ‘home’ – the Park Lane Hotel. The event was first held here on 9 March 1934. Once again, over 300 joined the London president W Oliver Nodes for the customary reception, culinary extravaganza, toasts, speeches and entertainment; on this occasion the latter was provided by Jack Upson’s Band and Harold Lawrence with his Silver Wings Cabaret.
Construction of the Park Lane Hotel commenced in 1925 and was concluded two years later. It was the first hotel in London with a bathroom in every room. In Sir Nikolaus Pevsner’s architectural guides the ballroom is described as ‘…one of London’s best Art Deco spaces. Silver, mauve and pink colours; mushroom columns; scrolling and scalloped motifs. Decoration includes paintings…of nymphs and wild beasts.’ Park Lane Hotel has been the home of the banquet for most of the subsequent period..
In 1935 The Undertakers’ Journal included a photograph of those gathered for the dinner on the 18 January. On this occasion Mr H Leverton was toastmaster. Regrettably, no pictures survive of the entertainers: Fragson and his cigarettes, and Avant Bros, the comedy acrobats. It would be the last time the event was held under the auspices of the London Centre of the BUA as, at the conference at Southend in June of that year, the name National Association of Funeral Directors was adopted and the ‘London Association of Funeral Directors’ was born.
However, once again war interrupted the annual gathering. After the banquet on 9 March 1939 the event was not resumed until February 1947, when Robert Ebbutt was the president. On this occasion cabaret turns were provided by Two Maroons (footwork funsters), Stella Scott and her banjo, and Fabian Foot (baritone) and music by Jack Upson.
By 1950 attendances were back to their pre-war numbers. 350 people joined London president W Durham Kenyon along with a fellow Londoner as national president, James James-Crook, while in 1953, the president’s wife, Mrs Harold Rivett encouraged some 300 diners to contribute to the National Flood Relief Fund, responding to events of January that year. Deep snow greeted guests as they made their way to Park Lane for the 1958 dinner with Oliver Nodes as London president. The attendance record reached an all-time high in 1967 when 400 ‘…enjoyed a wonderful evening of good fellowship and good fun liberally laced with the generous hospitality for which the London Association is well-known.’
Over a hundred years on, the annual dinner (now described as the ‘Annual Banquet and Ball’) continues to occupy an important place in the Association’s calendar. It is always well supported by the London membership along with members of the NAFD and guests from all over the country.
The first dinner was held at the Park Lane Hotel in 1934.
This image shows the assembled four years later.
Top table in 1948. The LAFD president was Robert Ebbutt
and the NAFD president was Tom Mcintyre.
FUNERAL SERVICE IN LONDON
By Brian Parsons
London occupies an important place in the history of funeral service. The College of Arms, that managed funerals of the nobility until the eighteenth century still has its home in the City. Not far away the first commercial undertaker set up in business near the Old Bailey, around 1765. Most of the key funeral-related organisations can trace their origins to the capital; the Marylebone-based physician Sir Henry Thompson founded the Cremation Society of England in 1874, while the British Undertakers’ Association, the British Embalmers’ Society and the British Institute of Embalmers were all inaugurated here. Over the years, hundreds of firms of funeral directors have served families and London has provided the backdrop for many high profile funerals. This short history provides a glimpse into London’s fascinating funeral heritage.
THE LONDON ASSOCIATION OF FUNERAL DIRECTORS
Whilst the British Institute of Undertakers can be identified as the first ‘modern’ trade association, it had only a short life in the closing years of the nineteenth century. In 1904 the London Funeral Furnishers’ Association (LFFA) was founded, followed a year later by the British Undertakers’ Association (BUA) with Henry Sherry from Marylebone as its first president. The capital’s undertakers were represented by the London Division of the BUA. In December 1935, the BUA was renamed the National Association of Funeral Directors, with its London Division becoming the London Association of Funeral Directors (LAFD).
The first president of the LFFA was William Knox, an undertaker from the Old Kent Road area, with Henry Kellaway of Dulwich as the secretary. Over the years the LAFD and its predecessors have represented the interests of its membership through negotiating with trade unions, central government and local authorities. It also has provided educational initiatives such as a work experience scheme and, more recently, the Certificate in Funeral Arranging and Administration. A feature has been the annual banquet and ball; with the exception of the two World Wars, this popular event has been held since 1907.
The chain of office was designed by Toye & Co in 1923; at the annual dinner that year Alderman Harold Kenyon used it to invest the incoming president, C Milne of Fulham.
COFFINS
Provision of the coffin is central to the work of the funeral director. For many years coffins were hand crafted using elm and oak, but greater use of technology has been adopted the twentieth century and today the majority of coffins are machine constructed. Two factors have particularly impacted upon coffins. First, cremation authorities stipulated that easily combustible wood be used, along with coffin furnishings made from non-metallic materials. Secondly, the ravages of Dutch elm disease required the industry to seek alternatives, such as imported woods and non-solid boards like chipboard or medium-density fibreboard that could be covered in foil, veneer or cloth. Today a wide range of coffins and caskets are offered, including cardboard, wicker, bamboo and those decorated with images.
CARE OF THE DECEASED
An important event occurred in 1900, when two American professors visited London to give funeral directors instruction in preservation techniques. After their departure, London-based pioneers such as Arthur Dyer, Albert Cottridge, George Lear and W Oliver Nodes actively promoted embalming by offering tuition to funeral directors. The latter was the first president of the British Institute of Embalmers that was founded in 1927, while George Lear ran both a trade embalming service and school.
In the early years most embalmments took place at home. However, during the interwar years death increasingly occurred in hospital and this encouraged the trend for the body to be transported to a chapel of rest to await the funeral. As funeral directors gained more responsibility for the decease, they provided fully equipped embalming theatres and mortuaries with refrigerated accommodation.
TRANSPORT
Due to their distance from urban areas and the impracticability of walking funerals, the horse drawn hearse was developed during the mid-nineteenth century to transport the coffin to the new private cemeteries located at places such as Kensal Green, Highgate and Nunhead. Most undertakers did not possess their own stable and hired from a carriagemaster, such as Henry Smith in Battersea or Dottridge Brothers near the City. Undertakers also made good use of the extensive rail network. to move coffins quickly and relatively inexpensively around the country. The service that ran from the London Necropolis Company’s private station at Waterloo to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey was perhaps the most novel use of the railway. The coffin and mourners were conveyed directly into the cemetery using a branch line.
The motor hearse first made an appearance on London’s streets around 1906. Initially used for transporting coffins in a closed compartment, by the 1920s they were regularly appearing on funerals. Both forms of transport continued until the late 1940s, before the horse drawn hearse finally disappeared. However, their absence was only brief and much prominence was given to their return during the funerals of some notorious east end gangsters. The first motor hearses were, literally, the coffin compartment of a horse hearse secured to the chassis. As time has progressed the makes of funeral vehicles have largely reflected those adopted for domestic use: in the 1920s to 1940s Daimler, Austin and Rolls Royce, while Humber and Princess followed in the 1950s. A decade on Ford’s and Vauxhall’s were popular, while more recently Volvos, Jaguars and Mercedes have appeared. The Daimler DS 420 was held by many funeral directors to be the all-time classic funeral vehicle.
A FEW FAMOUS FUNERALS
Over the years, funeral directors in the capital have contributed to some of the most high profile funerals to have ever taken place in this country. The text accompanying these seven images outlines the involvement of some of the capital’s funeral directors.
In anticipation of the funeral of Lord Nelson on Thursday 9 January 1806, The Times predicted, ‘No procession that has ever taken place in this country will equal, in point of grandeur and pomp, that which will be displayed as the funeral of Lord NELSON.’ No more accurate assessment could have been written.
Although the Garter King at Arms, Sir Isaac Heard, and the College of Arms were responsible for the funeral, aspects of the arrangements were subcontracted to the London firm of Banting and France. Constructed by a Mr Chittenden, the mahogany coffin was made from the mainmast of the ship Orient, the flagship of the defeated French during the battle of Nile. Mr Powell, an undertaker in Islington, designed the open state hearse with canopy.
Lord Nelson’s lying in state took place at Greenwich Hospital before a flotilla transported the coffin to Whitehall Stairs. From there it was taken to the Admiralty. On 9 January the procession made its way from Westminster via the Strand and Fleet Street where it entered the City at the Temple Bar gate before moving towards Ludgate Circus and finally to St Paul’s. After a service in the Cathedral the coffin was lowered into the grave located in the central space under the dome.
Queen Victoria died at Osborne House on 22 January 1901. Ten days later her coffin was transported from the Isle of Wight across the Solent to Gosport where it was taken by train to London. At Victoria station, twelve men of the Guards and Household Calvary placed the coffin upon a gun-carriage for the journey to Paddington (pictured here). The appropriately named Royal Sovereign locomotive then hauled the royal train to Windsor. After a service in St George’s Chapel, the coffin was moved to the Albert Memorial Chapel where it remained until the afternoon of Monday 4 February when interment took place next to Prince Albert in the royal mausoleum at Frogmore. The funeral furnishers W Banting of St James’s were engaged to assist with the funeral, with the equally historic firm of JD Field also making a significant contribution.
George V died on 20 January 1936 at Sandringham. His coffin was taken by train from Wolferton to King’s Cross, then to Westminster Hall for lying in state. W Oliver Nodes, first President of the British Institute of Embalmers, assisted Mr LV Weaving of William Garstin funeral directors in Marylebone with the embalming.
George VI’s funeral in February 1952 followed what had become an established format of lying in state at Westminster Hall then burial at Windsor. Desmond Henley of JH Kenyon was called upon to embalm the King and the firm assisted with other aspects of the funeral. This photograph shows the funeral procession at Marble Arch on its way to Paddington station.
The funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral of the three policemen shot during a raid of a jewellery business in Houndsditch in December 1910. The incident led to the infamous ‘Siege of Sydney Street’. Sergeants Bentley and Tucker and Constable Choate were posthumously awarded the King’s Police Medal. The two sergeants were buried in the City of London Cemetery at Ilford and Constable Choate at Byfleet in Surrey.
In October 1920 the London Centre of the British Undertakers’ Association was contacted by the Ministry of Works for assistance with the bringing home of the body of the Unknown Warrior. The president of the BUA was H Kirtley Nodes of John Nodes in Ladbroke Grove and together with the London secretary, the Revd John Sowerbutts, they accompanied the coffin to and from France. Wood for the coffin was sourced from the grounds of Hampton Court Palace and it was constructed at Ingall, Parsons, Clive & Co’s Forward Works at Wealdstone in north west London. The coffin was a ‘gift of appreciation’ to the nation from members of the BUA who each subscribed one shilling. As the coffin on a gun-carriage passed down Whitehall on the way to Westminster Abbey, George V pressed a button to release the flags covering the newly-constructed Cenotaph.
‘Incense in Kingsway’ was the headline in the Daily Sketch describing Father Arthur Stanton’s funeral procession. A faithful curate who ministered to the poor for over fifty years, his coffin, headed by a thurifer and churchwardens, was wheeler on a bier by fellow clergy from St Alban the Martyr, Brook Street, Holborn, to the Necropolis Station at Waterloo. At 2.30pm on 1 April 1913 a special train carried the coffin to Brookwood where a crowd of over 1,000 had assembled for his interment in the church’s own section of the cemetery.
Dr Thomas John Barnardo was born in Ireland in 1845, and his name is still remembered today. Working in the East End during a cholera epidemic he procured a room in Stepney and stared to teach ‘rough, ragged boys of the district’. Homes were established in London, including the Girls’ Village Home at Barkingside. Following his death on 19 September 1905 his coffin lay in state at the Edinburgh Castle Mission Hall in Limehouse. A lengthy procession, headed by the band of the Stepney Boys’ Home, preceded the coffin to Liverpool Street station for the journey to Barkingside. After cremation, his ashes were buried beside the Children’s church. This image shows the scene at Barkingside station.
PAST PRESIDENTS
London Funeral Furnishers’ Association (1904 – 1906)
London Centre of the BUA (1906 – 1935)
London Association of Funeral Directors (1935 – present)
W Knox 1904-1906
JR Hurry 1906-1907
FJD Field 1907-1908
JR Hurry 1908-1910
RJ Sinclair 1910-1911
J Goulborn 1911-1912
JJ Cottridge 1912-1913
GC Chivers 1913-1915
J Crowe 1915-1916
W Johnson 1916-1917
TW Muzzell 1917-1918
FE Smith 1918-1919
HK Nodes 1919-1920
AG Harvey 1920-1921
AR Adams 1921-1922
CA Milne 1922-1923
EH Brooks 1923-1924
AG Hurry 1924-1925
HK Nodes 1925-1927
HN Allen 1927-1928
Nodes Lello 1928-1929
WH Crook 1929-1930
NH Allen 1930-1931
HD Messent 1931-1932
TH Ebbutt 1932-1933
W O Nodes 1933-1934
F Ballard 1934-1935
C Ashton 1935-1936
A Reynolds 1936-1937
EH Brooks 1937-1938
TH Ebbutt 1938-1939
FW Shepherd 1939-1941
H Leverton 1941-1942
HK Nodes 1941-1942
WH Crook 1942-1943
HK Nodes 1943-1944
J Crook 1944-1945
HK Nodes 1945-1946
J James Crook 1946-1947
H English 1947-1948
RA Ebbutt 1948-1949
WD Kenyon 1949-1950
LC Ashton 1950-1952
N Rivett 1952-1953
D Ballard 1953-1954
EH Messent 1954-1955
NT Turner 1955-1956
WA English 1956-1957
O Nodes 1957-1958
S Gillman 1958-1959
R Clift 1959-1960
TH Ebbutt 1960-1961
I Leverton 1961-1962
W Johns 1962-1963
S Gillman 1963-1964
NH Rivett 1964-1965
LR Larner 1965-1966
GN Carter 1966-1967
GB Richardson 1967-1968
JH Kenyon 1968-1969
D Cooper 1969-1970
Miss V Millwood 1970-1971
LR Larner 1971-1972
B Berry 1972-1973
HN Rivett 1973-1974
MJK Nodes 1974-1975
TMD Britton 1975-1976
RH Mulley 1976-1977
GC Marnoch 1977-1978
D Carter 1978-1979
GJ Mitchell 1979-1980
MV Kenyon 1980-1981
MR Harper 1981-1982
JR Lodge 1982-1983C
PJ Field 1983-1984
Miss MH Ellement 1984-1985
MJ Dovell 1985-1986
SA Truelove 1986-1987
SB Kemp 1987-1988
PA Webb 1988-1989
Miss A Larner 1989-1990
A Higgins 1990-1991
R Gillman 1991-1992
C Leverton 1992-1993
S Thomas 1993-1994
PA Webb 1994-1995
ABA Rowland 1995-1996
SB Kemp 1996-1998
G Saville 1998-1999
K Goodchild 1999-2000
Miss K Petersen 2000-2001
Mrs S Saville 2001-2003
RJ Lodge 2003-2005
Miss C Austin 2005-2006
J Downing 2006-2007
Mrs S Saville 2007-2008
S Kershaw 2008-2009
J Gallagher 2009-2010
S Payne 2010-2011
R Barnes 2011-2012
JMD Field OBE 2012-2013
B Pritchard 2013-2014
Mrs S Farrow 2014-2015
J Lodge 2015-2016
J Gallagher 2016-2017
M Barber 2017-2018
R Van Nes 2018-2019
A K Ginder 2019-2020
A K Ginder 2020-2021
M Tiney 2022-2023
M Tiney 2023-2024
With acknowledgements to the Funeral Service Journal