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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 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. ...
.


Life

She was born Jeannette Caroline Grover in 1813 in Amsterdam. She married the artist Henry Hall Pickersgill on 20 July 1837 at
St Anne's, Soho Saint Anne's Church serves in the Church of England the Soho section of London. It was consecrated on 21 March 1686 by Bishop Henry Compton as the parish church of the new civil and ecclesiastical parish of St Anne, created from part of the pari ...
. He died 7 January 1861. She published a volume of poetry in 1827 entitled ''Tales of the Harem''. She exhibited at the
Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
between 1848 and 1863. The 1881 Census lists her as an
annuitant An annuitant is a person who is entitled to receive benefits from an annuity. The payout benefits for an annuitant are based on the person's life expectancy. Since 2000, in the United States of America, Federal and State agencies have allowed th ...
living at 59 Dorset Square in Regent's Park in London. On her death '' The Times'' described Pickersgill as "a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles".


Cremation and aftermath

Pickersgill was cremated six days after her death. The great concern at the time was that the person may not be actually dead, and the thought of being burned alive was too shocking for the
Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...
s to contemplate. Due to this concern, two doctors certified that Pickersgill was dead. The cremation took one hour and 15 minutes. The notes in the cremation register record that the remains were later taken, in the 20th century, to Golders Green Crematorium's East Columbarium. By year's end, only three cremations had taken place out of 597,357 deaths in the UK. At that time cremation was championed by the Cremation Society of Great Britain. By 1901, with six crematoria established, only 427 cremations took place out of 551,585 deaths - less than one-tenth of one percent. However, by the end of the century (2000), over 240 crematoria were in use. Over 70% of the deceased were cremated (437,609 out of 611,960 deaths).The Cremation Society of Great Britain - National Cremation Statistics 1960-2009
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See also

* Dr. William Price, eccentric Welsh physician and advocate of cremation


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickersgill, Jeanette 1813 births 1885 deaths 19th-century English painters 19th-century English poets Artists from Amsterdam Cremation Death in the United Kingdom Dutch emigrants to England Writers from Amsterdam