Replacement casket to contain the ashes of the first person to be cremated at Woking in March 1885
- colin89880
- Apr 8
- 1 min read
LAFD President Gary Valentine-Fuller and Brian Parsons with the replacement casket to contain the ashes of the first person to be cremated at Woking in March 1885. As the original case had deteriorated a new one was constructed by a former coffin maker, Kevin Denham, with the LAFD financing the engraving of the nameplate.
The plate reads:
Jeannette Caroline Pickersgill 1815-1885
The first person to be cremated at Woking Crematorium on 26 March 1885.
And also
William Crellin Pickersgill
Cremated at Woking on 6 October 1887
This replacement case was constructed to mark the 140th anniversary of the first cremation at Woking.
On Sunday 23 March 2025 Brian Parsons gave a lecture at the West London Crematorium entitled 'Cremation and Kensal Green'. The presentation was preceded by a walk through the cemetery led by Robert Stephenson that highlighted graves of those associated with the early cremation movement after the Cremation Society of England (now Great Britain) had been founded in 1874. Some supporters of cremation were buried as cremation was not available until 1885.
The ashes were subsequently placed in the new case, which was sealed and return to the catacombs under the Anglican Chapel in Kensal Green Cemetery replacement casket to contain the ashes of the first person to be cremated at Woking in March 1885
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