uber undertakers

Finally, we can reveal the successful contenders who have made The Long List for the 2016 Good Funeral Awards

This year we have received more nominations than ever before, and with 24 categories, there are over 170 individuals or companies who will be considered for a chance to win one of the most covetable accolades in Funeralworld.

We don’t envy the judges their task this time around; the standard of entries is extraordinarily high, and the supporting testimonials that have been pouring in are heartfelt and often deeply grateful – many hundreds of people have taken the time to write in to tell us about the kindness, the skill or the care they received from their nominee when they were bereaved, and how much this meant to them.

Every letter or e-mail received in support of those named on the Long List will be handed over next week for the final decision making by the Good Funeral Awards judges, those eminences whose identities remain a closely guarded secret.

Their final choices of the winning entrants will be revealed at the glittering lunchtime Awards Ceremony on September 8th, which is being hosted by comedian and author Shappi Khorsandi at London’s grand Porchester Hall – an event made possible by the generosity of our main sponsor Funeralbooker, a donation from our good friends at Greenfield Creations and the support of our individual category sponsors (shown below).

Everyone is welcome to come along, whether or not you were nominated, or are on the 2016 Long List. The Good Funeral Awards are a day to celebrate the changing world of funerals and the wonderful people that inhabit it. And this year it’s going to be a very stylish occasion. Wear your best frocks. There will be cameras and journalists a-plenty; a London awards ceremony for the funeral industry is intriguing the media!

If you haven’t already booked your place at the best party in town, click here to order your ticket for the Awards Lunch, or e-mail us for an invoice.

And if you have made it to the 2016 Good Funeral Awards Long List, congratulations. Really, really well done. You should be immensely proud to see your name below.

The 2016 Good Funeral Awards Long List

1. Minister of the Year

Revd. Canon Gill Behenna (Chaplain among Deaf people in the Diocese of Bristol)

Revd. Kate Bottley (Vicar of the churches of Blyth, Scrooby and Ranskill and Chaplain to North Notts College)

Revd. Richard Mitchell (formerly of the Parish Church of St. Paul, Shurdington, now Canon Precentor at Gloucester Cathedral)

Revd. Melanie Toogood (Former Vicar of St. George & All Saints, Tufnell Park)

2. Celebrant of the Year (sponsored by Civil Ceremonies Ltd.)

John Banks

Diana Gould

Angela (Basira) Ward

3. Embalmer of the Year

Steve Fooks

Andy Holder

Angie McLachlan

Matthew Newton

4. Coffin Supplier of the Year (sponsored by ECoffins)

5. Florist of the Year

Colonnade Florist

Dazzle Me Daisy Do

Debbie Western Flowers

Flower Workshop

Flowers By Susan

Flowers on Main Street

Louise Taylor Flowers

Inspired Flower Design

6. Gravedigger of the Year

Ivor Davies (Caerphilly County Borough Council)

Martin House (Eden Valley Woodland Burial Ground)

Will Pearce

D. T. H. Burial & Churchyard Service

13. Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death (sponsored by Final Fling)

Lucy Coulbert

Jane Duncan Rogers

Lucy Talbot & Sarah Troop

Tamworth Co-operative Funeral Service

The Corpse Project

The Natural Death Centre Charity

14. Best Maker of Hand Carved Memorials in an Indigenous Material

Bierton & Woods

The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop

Stoneletters

15. Low Cost Funeral Provider of the Year

Coulbert Family Funerals

Evelyn’s Funerals

Funerals on a Budget

Only With Love

Express-Burials & Express Cremations

Secure Haven Cremations

Wallace Stuart Funeral Directors

16. Green Funeral Director of the Year (sponsored by The Association of Green Funeral Directors)

Higher Ground Family Funerals

Only With Love

The Green Funeral Company

Woodland Wishes

17. Funeral Arranger of the Year

Angela Bailey at Harrison Funeral Home

Emma Fisher at Colin Fisher Funeral Directors

Sarah Lee of Holmes & Family Funeral Directors

Sarah Wolsey at Daniel Ross Funerals Ltd.

18. Most Promising New Funeral Director (sponsored by The Church of England)

Chloe Middleton (Rosedale Funeral Home)

C. S. Boswell Independent Family Funeral Services

Compassionate Funerals

Crumpton Rudd

Dandelion Farewells

Divine Ceremony

Edd Frost & Daughters

Final Journey Funeral Directors

The Modern Funeral

Youngs Independent Funeral Services

19. Modern Funeral Director of the Year (sponsored by The Natural Death Centre Charity)

A Natural Undertaking

Albany Funerals

Bewley & Merrett

Compassionate Funerals

Harmony Funeral Care

Harrison Funeral Home

Heart & Soul Funerals

Mark Catchpole

Only With Love

Respect Direct Funeral Services

Tamworth Co-operative Funeral Service

The Individual Funeral Company

Town & Country Funeral Directors

Wallace Stuart Funeral Directors

20. Traditional Funeral Director of the Year (sponsored by A. R. Adams Funeral Directors)

David Crayton of John Lucas Funerals

Suzan Davies of Abbey Funeral Services

Oliver Holmes of Holmes & Family Funeral Directors

Albany Funerals

Leverton & Sons

Tamworth Co-operative Funeral Service

The Individual Funeral Company

Trevor E. W. Hickton Ltd.

Wallace Stuart Funeral Directors

21. Most Innovative Death Public Engagement Event

Louise Winter

Bristol Culture

Brum YODO

London Society of Death

Respect Drivers Pageant

22. Mortuary Assistant or Team of the Year (including Anatomical Pathology Technicians)

Wayne Day at T. E. W. Hickson Ltd.

Lara-Rose Iredale at Guys & St. Thomas NHS Foundation Trust

Louise Milligan at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

Hannah Nutbeem at Heart & Soul Funeral Directors

The team at The John Radcliffe Hospital

23. Crematorium Assistant of the Year

Steve Biggs at Mortlake Crematorium

Roy Paget at Solihull Bereavement Services

Gary Paterson at Breakspear Crematorium

Paul Rayner at Solihull Bereavement Services

Carolyne Reeve at Teesside Crematorium

The entire team at Golders Green Crematorium

The entire team at Redditch Crematorium

24. Lifetime Achievement Award

Nicholas Albery (posthumously)

The first time I spoke on the phone to Carl Marlow his voice was drenched with adrenaline. He’d just got back from cremating a Hindu on an open-air pyre.

He got away with it. Just. It’s against the law.

That’s the way Carl is.

The first time I saw him, at his office in Wallsend, he showed me bits of bone he’d just that morning retrieved from the pyre’s ashes. He then went on to give me all the time I wanted. He drove me round and we talked and talked. He carries a wicker coffin in the back of his car. Whenever he sees a nice field he poses it in it and photographs it.

He does things differently, does Carl. He does things so differently that other funeral directors in his area regard him as a cowboy and a joke. They say joke, but they’re not laughing. Carl is no respecter of ‘tradition’. He says, “I’m not here to be liked by the funeral industry, I’m here to change it. It’s just a weird industry. I think there’s a lot of arrogance within funeral directors. I don’t even know why they wear a uniform. I don’t know why they walk in front of the car with a big hat and a cane – what’s that all about?”

He says, “I’ve never been in a more bitchy industry in my life.” Well, even his most appalled critics will agree with him there.

Carl doesn’t do things differently for the sake of it. He’s a huge character but he’s not a huge ego. He really does put other people first. He wants to do what’s right for them, what’s best for them. He says, “We all live our lives as individuals, but when it comes to funerals we all go the same way, and that’s what I do not like about the industry; they do not offer choice.” He wants people to do what they believe and what they dare. He doesn’t want poor people to have to spend a penny more than they have to. “Did you ever buy him flowers when he was alive?” Carl will ask a widow. “Do you really feel you have to buy him flowers now he’s dead?”

He’s incredibly good value for money.

Carl empowers people. That’s how he got to take one dead man to the crem wrapped in his duvet with his feet sticking out, just as he wanted. More than once he’s filled a 54-seater coach with mourners and sent it off to the crem with the coffin in the luggage compartment and everyone singing. Cheap. Cheerful. He taps into that peculiarly British vein of anarcho-hilarity.

He looks after people. He buries ashes in cemetery plots for nothing. He digs the hole himself, saving the family around £300. The council doesn’t necessarily know about this.

You could say that Carl plays fast and loose, but always and only in a good cause, where his big heart leads him. Sure, he may flatten a fence or two on the way. Ah, well.

If Carl is a daring, dashing dreamer, his mercurial spirit is counterbalanced by the tranquil demeanour of his right-hand man, Billy Spencer. Billy is classically trained, a safe pair of hands, a lovely guy. Together, they make a brilliant team.

The case for open-air cremation goes to the High Court on 10 November 2008, brought by the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society. Carl wants pyres for all who want them, not just Hindus; he reckons there’s a lot of demand for them. Yes, and sky burial, too, if that’s what people want.

Whether you reckon his vision and demeanour to be revolutionary or reprehensible, there’s no denying that Carl is a serious man.

See him at work here.

See the open-air cremation here. As Carl and Billy put the body in the coffin, watch Carl. You can see that the body was, well, not in the best condition.

The Longest Long List Ever

The 2016 Good Funeral Awards Long List

1. Minister of the Year

2. Celebrant of the Year (sponsored by Civil Ceremonies Ltd.)

3. Embalmer of the Year

4. Coffin Supplier of the Year (sponsored by ECoffins)

5. Florist of the Year

6. Gravedigger of the Year

7. Cemetery of the Year

8. Crematorium of the Year (sponsored by Scattering Ashes)

9. Best Internet Bereavement Resource

10. Best Funeral Caterer

11. Best Alternative to a Hearse

12. Best Green Funeral Product

13. Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death (sponsored by Final Fling)

14. Best Maker of Hand Carved Memorials in an Indigenous Material

15. Low Cost Funeral Provider of the Year

16. Green Funeral Director of the Year (sponsored by The Association of Green Funeral Directors)

17. Funeral Arranger of the Year

18. Most Promising New Funeral Director (sponsored by The Church of England)

19. Modern Funeral Director of the Year (sponsored by The Natural Death Centre Charity)

20. Traditional Funeral Director of the Year (sponsored by A. R. Adams Funeral Directors)

21. Most Innovative Death Public Engagement Event

22. Mortuary Assistant or Team of the Year (including Anatomical Pathology Technicians)

23. Crematorium Assistant of the Year

24. Lifetime Achievement Award

Uber undertakers 1: Carl Marlow