The Cremation Society of Great Britain (now known as The Cremation Society) was founded in 1874 to promote the use of

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a Cadaver, dead body through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India ...

as an alternative means of dealing with the bodies of the dead instead of burial which until then was the only option. Today the society is a registered charity and is not conducted for profit.

Early history

In Europe, a movement to reintroduce cremation as a viable method for body disposal began in the early 1870s. This was made possible by the invention of new furnace technology and contact with Eastern cultures that practiced it. At the time, many proponents believed in the

miasma theory The miasma theory (also called the miasmatic theory) is an obsolete medical theory that held that diseases—such as cholera, chlamydia, or the Black Death—were caused by a ''miasma'' (, Ancient Greek for 'pollution'), a noxious form of "bad ...

, and that cremation would reduce the "bad air" that caused diseases. In 1869, the idea was presented to the Medical International Congress of Florence by Professors Coletti and Castiglioni "in the name of public health and civilization". In 1873 Professor

Paolo Gorini Paolo Gorini (18 January 1813 – 2 February 1881) was an Italian mathematician, professor, scientist, and politician renowned as a pioneer of cremation in Europe, primarily in the United Kingdom. Biography Born in Pavia, Gorini obtained a bach ...

of Lodi and Professor Ludovico Brunetti of

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

published reports of practical work they had conducted. A model of Brunetti's cremating apparatus, together with the resulting ashes, was exhibited at the

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in 1873 and attracted great attention

The Cremation Society of Great Britain was founded in 1874 by Sir Henry Thompson, a surgeon and

Physician to the Queen Physician to the King (or Queen, as appropriate) is a title held by physicians of the Medical Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Part of the Royal Household, the Medical Household includes physicians, who treat general conditions ...

in which capacity he served

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

; he was also to become its first president. He had seen Gorini's cremator at the Vienna Exhibition and had returned home to become the first and chief promoter of cremation in England. Thompson's article 'The Treatment of the Body after Death' appeared in ''

The Contemporary Review ''The Contemporary Review'' is a British biannual, formerly quarterly, magazine. It has an uncertain future as of 2013. History The magazine was established in 1866 by Alexander Strahan and a group of intellectuals anxious to promote intellig ...

'' in January 1874. In it he wrote: "it was becoming a necessary sanitary precaution against the propagation of disease among a population daily growing larger in relation to the area it occupied". While his main argument in support of cremation concerned hygiene his other reasoning included that cremation would lessen the chances of burial alive, reduce the cost of funerals, save mourners from having to stand in all weathers during interment, and cremation urns would be safe from vandalism. Thompson further expressed the radical financial argument that the resultant ashes could be utilised as fertilizer. The ensuing debate in the press encouraged Thompson to call a meeting of his friends at his home at 35

Wimpole Street Wimpole Street is a street in Marylebone, central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it is associated with private medical practice and medical associations. No. 1 Wimpole Street is an example of Edwardian baroque architecture, compl ...

on 13 January 1874 during which a declaration was written and signed by those present. This stated:

"We, the undersigned, disapprove the present custom of burying the dead, and we desire to substitute some mode which shall rapidly resolve the body into its component elements, by a process which cannot offend the living, and shall render the remains perfectly innocuous. Until some better method is devised we desire to adopt that usually known as cremation."of the Cremation Society - Cremation Society of Great Britain website
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Apart from Thompson the co-signatories of the declaration included:

Shirley Brooks Charles William Shirley Brooks (29 April 1816 – 23 February 1874) was an English journalist and novelist. Born in London, he began his career in a solicitor's office. Shortly afterwards he took to writing, and contributed to various per ...

Frederick Lehmann (Augustus) Frederick Lehmann (1826 – 22 August 1891) was a British businessman and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1880. Lehmann was born in Hamburg, the son of Leo Lehmann of Hamburg. He was the brother of Henri ...

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

John Tenniel Sir John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914)Johnson, Lewis (2003), "Tenniel, John", ''Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online'', Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved 12 December 2016. was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and pol ...

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...

and Sir

Thomas Spencer Wells Sir Thomas Spencer Wells, 1st Baronet (3 February 181831 January 1897) was surgeon to Queen Victoria, a medical professor and president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Early life He was born at St Albans, Hertfordshire and receive ...

. At this meeting the Cremation Society of Great Britain was created. Its founder Sir Henry Thompson wrote that the society was "organised expressly for the purpose of obtaining and disseminating information on the subject and for adopting the best method of performing the process, as soon as this could be determined, provided that the act was not contrary to Law". They founded the United Kingdom's first crematorium,

Woking Crematorium Woking Crematorium is a crematorium in Woking, a large town in the west of Surrey, England. Established in 1878, it was the first custom-built crematorium in the United Kingdom and is closely linked to the history of cremation in the UK. Locat ...

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

with Gorini travelling to England to assist the installation of a cremator. It was first tested on 17 March 1879 with the body of a horse. However, after protests and an intervention by the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

, Sir Richard Cross, their plans were put on hold. In 1884, the Welsh

Neo-Druidic Druidry, sometimes termed Druidism, is a modern spiritual or religious movement that promotes the cultivation of honorable relationships with the physical landscapes, flora, fauna, and diverse peoples of the world, as well as with nature deit ...

priest William Price was arrested and put on trial for attempting to cremate his son's body. Price successfully argued in court that while the law did not state that cremation was legal, it also did not state that it was illegal. The case set a precedent that allowed the Cremation Society to proceed.

First legal British cremations

In 1885, the first official cremation in the United Kingdom took place in Woking. The deceased was

Jeanette Pickersgill Jeanette Pickersgill (30 November 1813 – 20 March 1885) was an English painter, She was the first person to be legally cremated in the United Kingdom, at Woking Crematorium in Surrey. Life She was born Jeannette Caroline Grover in 1813 in Ams ...

, a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles. By the end of the year, the Cremation Society of Great Britain had overseen two more cremations, a total of 3 out of 597,357 deaths in the UK that year. In 1888, 28 cremations took place at the venue. In 1891, Woking Crematorium added a chapel, pioneering the concept of a crematorium being a venue for funerals as well as cremation. The Cremation Society of Great Britain drew up the original forms of certification for cremation which were to be adopted as the basis for the first Cremation Act in 1902.

The movement spreads

After opening Woking Crematorium the society supported the opening of crematoria in other cities, with the Manchester Crematorium opening in 1892, Glasgow Crematorium in 1895, Liverpool Crematorium in 1896 and

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

Crematorium in 1901. Meanwhile, Thompson's idea spread as far as the United States and Japan. The Hull Crematorium was opened in 1901 by the local council. In 1902

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...

was built by the London Crematorium Company Ltd, which had been founded by Thompson.

Birmingham Crematorium Birmingham Crematorium is a Protestant crematorium in the Perry Barr district of Birmingham, England, designed by Frank Osborne and opened in 1903. A columbarium was added in 1928. The crematorium is now owned and operated by Dignity plc. O ...

opened in 1903. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the society was not able to spread its message but its cause was publicised by the cremation of the Duchess of Connaught in 1917. Gradually, more and more people turned to cremation including prime ministers and bishops of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

. In 1930 the society changed its name from The Cremation Society of England to The Cremation Society of Great Britain. Since its foundation in 1874 The Cremation Society has worked to popularise the use of cremation among all branches and levels of society. Over the decades the society has assisted and advised private companies and local authorities on the building of new crematoria at the same time as lobbying government to ease the restrictions which were preventing cremation from being readily available to all.Welcome to the Cremation Society - Cremation Society of Great Britain website
/ref> Today cremation accounts for about 78% of all funerals in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. In 2008 the society amended its Memorandum and Articles of Association so that it could investigate alternative methods of dealing with the bodies of the dead. The Archive of The Cremation Society is held in the

Durham University Library The Durham University Library is the centrally administered library of Durham University in England. It was founded in January 1833 at Palace Green by a 160 volume donation by the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert, and now holds over 1 ...

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

Past Presidents of the Cremation Society of Great Britain

*1874 - 1904: Sir Henry Thompson, Bt., F.R.C.A. *1904 - 1921:

Sir Charles Cameron Sir Charles Cameron, 1st Baronet, (18 December 1841 – 2 October 1924), was a Scottish doctor, newspaper editor and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician. Cameron was born in Dublin, the son of John Cameron, newspaper proprietor of Glasgow and ...

, Bt., M.D., LL.B., MP *1921 - 1940: His Grace The Duke of Bedford, K.G. *1940 - 1955: The Rt. Hon. Lord Horder, G.C.V.O., F.R.C.P. *1955 - 1960: The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Verulam, M.A., J.P. *1960 - 1970: Sir John Cameron, Bt., M.A., LL.B. *1970 - 1982: The Rt. Hon. The Lord Greenwood of Rossendale P.C., J.P. *1982 - 1990: The Rt. Hon. The Lord Marshall of Leeds, KT., M.A.,LL.M. *1992 - 2013: Rt. Hon. The Earl Grey *2013 - 2020: Vacant on the death of the Rt Hon. The Earl GreyPast Presidents of the Cremation Society of Great Britain - Cremation Society of Great Britain website
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cremation Society of Great Britain 1874 establishments in England Cremation Death in the United Kingdom Cremation in the United Kingdom