In many respects it was the perfect example of a contemporary, Covid-era funeral: the two sons not speaking to each other and walking separately behind the coffin; the daughter-in-law later stepping in to act as go-between and peacemaker;a somewhat ‘dressed down’ dress code; Covid restrictions meaning it had to be a private funeral, leaving the family with awkward choices about who to invite and who they could afford to offend by not inviting; the wife having to sit on her own in the church; and the coffin being transported on an alternative-style hearse. You have to hand it to them, the Royal Family certainly know how to keep up with the times.
I must confess though, my heart sank a little when it was announced that Prince Philip’s coffin was going to be transported on a Land Rover hearse. It’s not that I’ve got anything against Land Rover hearses. There’s some very good ones available for hire and it’s certainly an option my own firm makes available to those families who might want it. And boy, did I feel for the hearse driver. He had a simple, ten minute drive to do, but the pressure must have been incredible. I mean, just imagine if his sleeve had caught on the lever that operates the windscreen wipers or the indicators. “You had ONE job, Corporal…!” Needless to say, that didn’t happen and he did a superb and flawless job.
So no, it wasn’t the Land Rover I was concerned about. It was the prospect of the Royal Family becoming unwitting flag-bearers for an ever-increasing push against traditional funerals in favour of much more personalised ceremonies. To my mind the Royal Family are there to provide a baseline and a direct link to ‘tradition’, in whatever way we choose to understand the term. But times change, social rituals evolve and where funerals are concerned people are now quite understandably turning their faces against the impersonal, rigid strictures of traditional services in favour of ceremonies that better reflect the lives of their loved ones. But in setting our faces against traditions that have evolved over hundreds of years, are we in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water?
One of the few positive aspects of lockdown has been the need to hold very stripped-down, simplified funerals. Yes, it’s been horrible for families having to negotiate the attendance restrictions and decide who to invite and who not to. But just like weddings, when all the trappings are removed and there isn’t the distraction of large numbers of people, families are free to concentrate on what it is they’re actually there for. There’s an immediacy to it that just isn’t there with larger funerals. It’s the same for me as a funeral director. ‘Big’ funerals mean your attention needs to be directed in lots of different directions all at once, and often that means that even during the service there will still be things to be attended to. The family become relegated to just one more item on a list of things you need to think about and as you lead them out of the church or crematorium chapel afterwards you’re often left thinking “Well, I hope that all went alright for you.” With smaller funerals there’s much more opportunity for me to stand at the back for the whole service or ceremony and actually witness what I’ve helped to arrange.
Needless to say, my concerns about Prince Philip’s funeral were entirely misplaced. It was a perfect blend of the traditional and the contemporary: a magnificent ceremony that masterfully reflected both the man himself and the institutions he’d served for so long. In the context of a royal funeral the Land Rover hearse was a bold statement for sure, but it didn’t actually stand out that much. It was simply one part of a much bigger picture, just as it was intended to be. There was so much else to take in anyway, what with all the military ceremonial and of course the attention on Philip’s currently rather fractured and media-battered family. But even with all that going on, the funeral was about the man that he was, and its many elements all reflected that perfectly. And all of it was characterised by precision-timed ceremonial, military polish, finesse and an overwhelming sense of occasion. No-one can do that quite like the British can, and you’ve got a long history of tradition to thank for that.
Article by James Baker
James Baker is a funeral director and the author of ‘A Life In Death – Memoirs of A Cotswold Funeral Director’ (2012) and ‘The Unmourned’ (2020)
