The funeral business of Attree & Kent flourishes today, their archives going back to 1790 when, I assume, they were still in Brighton. The firm was started by Mr Attree, probably H R Attree, who is listed under ‘Auctioneers’ in the town directory of 1826. Funerals back then were occasional commissions carried out by part of another trade or profession. In the back of this directory there is an addendum which includes J Poune of 4 New Road, Brighton as an ‘Undertaker and other’ (trades). He was most likely to have become the town’s first fulltime undertaker and he was still in New Road in 1847. By then, George Attree was carrying out both trades in St James’ Street before moving to North Street.

Although the undertaking profession was slow to form, that of a stonemason stretches back to early civilisation as there has always been a need of stone memorials to the departed. In modern times this became their specialised work and they went from early Victorian ‘stone and marble masons’ to ‘monumental masons’. Many masons saw undertaking as a natural expansion of their business and in Brighton G Newman & Son is one such example. They are still in business in Trafalgar Street but now as Newman & Stringer. As the great cemeteries opened – Extra Mural (1850), Woodvale (1856), Brighton and Preston (1885) – several masons moved close to them in Lewes and Hartington Roads and Rooke at the Hove Cemetery (1882).

Undertaking can also arise almost by accident as happened with the Cornford family of funeral directors, W Cornford & Son. They were founded in 1892 by a great grandmother of the family. A neighbour, struggling to find an undertaker, turned to her for help in burying her child. This she did and other requests then followed and she opened a successful funeral parlour in George Street, Hove.

Up until about the 1920s the funerals of wealthy or prominent citizens could be spectacular with glass coaches, black horses and the family in deep mourning attire. One in Brighton in 1912 was that of Capt. F Collins who had sailed his ‘Skylark’ boats for over 50 years as well as raising money for charities and the hospital of which he was a governor. On that day it is said that Brighton came to a standstill. More on spectacular funerals another time.

Laurie Keen