Photo courtesy Richmond Local History Society

Hello, and welcome to my website.

I work freelance providing a training, consultancy and research service under the banner of Funeral Service Training (London).

My website provides further information about me, my publications and my lectures. Links to all of these can be found above.

Meanwhile, you can contact me by emailing info@brianparsons.org.uk

My New Book: From Dust to Ashes: The Development of Cremation in England and Wales 1874 - 2024

From Dust to Ashes: The Development of Cremation in England and Wales, 1874 - 2024 (with Peter Jupp) has now been published by Springer.

The second edition of From Dust to Ashes brings up-to-date this classic text investigating the replacement of burial by cremation in England and Wales. Cremation was promoted seriously in 1874 but the first cremation did not take place until eleven years later. The response by the public was cautious. Despite the provision of crematoria, by 1939, less than 4 percent of deaths were followed by cremation. The Second World War and the immediate post-war welfare state period brought drastic change to the extent that by 1967 the number of cremations first exceeded burials. Today, the proportion is just over 80 per cent. The final chapter addresses the enormous changes in the last twenty-five years in the disposal of our dead.

This book discusses the activities of the Cremation Society, the establishment of early crematoria, and the promotion of cremation against the background of social and economic change before outlining the reasons why bereaved families chose to accept it and, finally, the social, economic and religious pressures that facilitated its adoption.

Price £119.99 (eBook £95.50) from Springer.

Forthcoming Lectures

 2026

4 March 2026

A Look at London’s Cemeteries

U3A online lecture

10 March 2026

The History of F W Paine

Wimbledon Historical Society

 Current Research & Articles in Preparation

Burial at Brompton Cemetery: Findings from Funeral Directors Records

Funeral Directors and the 1977 Strike

The History of Kingston Cemetery and Crematorium

The eighth of the ‘Magnificent Seven’? The History of Victoria Park Cemetery

A Pictorial Record of Anglo-Catholicism in London

You can contact me by emailing info@brianparsons.org.uk

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