Speaker Evening - Mr Graeme Henderson - a Dying Trade

A Dying Trade was the title of the talk at the Rotary Club of South Queensferry on Thursday 28th January. Rather than a practitioner of some obscure craft, however, the speaker turned out to be an undertaker. Graeme Henderson, from Kirkliston, is a funeral director with William Purves, one of the longest-established undertakers in the district. Founded in 1888, the family firm has branches throughout Edinburgh and the Lothians and has expanded to Hawick, Galashiels and Elgin. Recently it has moved into the north of England. A desire to help people through difficult times prompted Graeme to leave civil engineering for this discreet but essential profession. He outlined all aspects of the funeral director's role from dealing with the bureaucracy which inevitably follows a death, to the logistics of the event, whether a burial or cremation. The procedure for dealing with sudden deaths and deaths where no relatives exist was also described. He said that in Edinburgh, partly through lack of burial space, 90% of funerals were now cremations. This drops to 50% in East Lothian and 40% in the Borders. Despite the gravity of his subject, Graeme's talk contained many lighter anecdotes about a service we will all encounter at some stage. Naturally the talk prompted many questions from the floor ranging from how to leave one's body to science to which was the most unusual transport Graeme had been asked to supply. The talk was introduced by Enrico Prentice. Eric Proven proposed the vote of thanks.