Funeral plans news

They say change is the only constant and that applies to funerals as much as anything else – several long-established traditions continued to give way to personal choice in many of the funerals held last year

We take the idea of cremation very much for granted in modern day Britain, but less than 150 years ago, there were virtually no cremations carried out in the United Kingdom.

To mark 100 years since the end of the First World War, Golden Charter is sharing some of the Thank You stories sent to us by members of our network of independent funeral directors.

Items like tea bags, tissues, and daylight savings have become part of our daily life, but we rarely give any thought to their wartime heritage. To thank the First World War’s pioneers and recognise the innovations they made we have compiled a list of five inventions for which conflict was crucial in their development.

With many of the dead buried on the battlefields people needed a focus for their grief after the First World War and memorials were erected across the UK in the ‘greatest wave of remembrance this nation has ever seen’.

Just like the cost of living, the cost of dying can vary greatly depending on your location and research shows huge variations in the prices paid for funerals across the regions of the UK.

According to this year’s ‘Cost of Dying’ report from insurance company SunLife, the overall cost of organising a funeral, wake and administering an estate has risen to over £9,000 for the first time ever.

The way British society relates to death and dying has changed greatly over the last 100 years, with the First World War having a huge impact on attitudes to bereavement and mourning.

Former Changing Rooms presenter Carol Smillie has been training to become a humanist celebrant and recently began conducting humanist funerals.

As we get ready to start the third year of our fundraising partnership, we are delighted to announce that our donations have exceeded £195,000 in support of The Royal British Legion and its sister organisation, Poppyscotland.

We think of grief as a uniquely human emotion, but there are examples of animals experiencing suffering from the loss of a ‘loved one’.

Some people would love to be at their own funeral, as a fly on the wall or to join the party. We’re not at the point where we can attend our own send off, but video technology is helping create the illusion.

People can be uncomfortable with the idea of photographs at a funeral. But insensitive selfies aside, considerate funeral photography can provide a unique family memento.

Paying for your own funeral in advance is not a 21st century innovation. Planning ahead to cover the cost of funeral expenses can be traced back to ancient times.

Sending flowers as a tribute to the deceased is less common than it used to be, with many families now asking for charitable donations in lieu of flowers.

Whether you would choose to be cremated for reasons of cost or from concern for the environment, the one problem unique to cremation is what to do with the ashes.

Personal memorials are generally low-key. But monuments for some public figures have been designed to dominate the spaces they inhabit.

Each year in May, Dying Matters hosts its awareness week to raise the importance of talking about death, dying and bereavement with our friends, family and loved ones and the 2018 awareness is taking place between the 14th and 20th May.