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.

Location

The crematorium is in Woking, just outside St John's Village on Hermitage Road. Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is nearby but operated separately.

History

Woking Crematorium was founded in 1878, when a piece of land close to St John's Village was bought by Sir Henry Thompson. He was a surgeon and Physician to the Queen. In 1874, he was a founder and first president of the Cremation Society of England. The of land on which the crematorium was to be established was purchased from the London Necropolis Company with the aid of subscriptions.
It was both secluded yet readily accessible, as the London Necropolis Railway, suitable for the conveyance of the dead, already ran between London Waterloo Station and Woking. The cremator was constructed by Professor Paolo Gorini of Lodi, Italy. It was not initially enclosed in a building but stood in the open air in the crematorium grounds.
The new crematorium was first tested on 17 March 1879, when the body of a horse was cremated. The inhabitants of Woking showed strong antipathy to the crematorium and some appealed to the Home Secretary, Sir Richard Cross, to prohibit the use of the facility. The Woking cremator could not be used for human remains until after cremation was declared to be lawful in February 1884, as the result of the trial of Dr. William Price.
On 26 March 1885, the first official cremation in the UK took place in Woking. The deceased was Mrs Jeannette C. Pickersgill, whom The Times described as "a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles". By the end of the year, the Cremation Society of England had overseen two more cremations, a total of three out of 597,357 deaths in Great Britain and Ireland that year.
In 1886 ten bodies were cremated at Woking Crematorium. During 1888, in which 28 cremations took place, the Cremation Society planned to provide a chapel, waiting-rooms and other amenities there. The subscription list was headed by the Dukes of Bedford and Westminster. The Duke of Bedford later donated money to complete the buildings and to purchase ground adjacent to the property. The buildings were designed by an ecclesiastical architect in the character of English thirteenth-century Gothic. The churchlike appearance was intended to make the building look reassuring to the public at a time when cremation was an alien custom. The chapel was available for use in January 1891.
In 1892, 104 cremations were carried out at Woking. In 1902, the first crematorium was opened in London. By 1911, the original site at Woking was extended to and a Garden of Remembrance added.
Elected president of the Cremation Society in 1921, the 11th Duke of Bedford had the original cremator from Woking transferred to a new chapel at Golders Green Crematorium, where it was later used for his own cremation in 1940.

Cremations

Among those cremated here are:

Helena Blavatsky, died 1891, founder of the Theosophical Society
Mathilde Blind, died 1896, writer
Samuel Butler, died 1902, novelist
Bernard Cribbins, died 2022, actor
Edward Frederick Crippin, died 1892, businessman
John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, died 1900
Michael Dunford, died 2012, guitarist with Renaissance
Friedrich Engels, died 1895, philosopher
John Galsworthy, died 1933, novelist and playwright
Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, died 1899
Thomas Hardy, died 1928, writer
Florence Hardy, died 1937, writer, widow of Thomas Hardy
William Ernest Henley, died 1903, poet
Sir John Walter Huddleston, died 1890, judge.
Ralph King-Milbanke, 2nd Earl of Lovelace, died 1906, author
Eleanor Marx, died 1898
Eadweard Muybridge, died 1904, early pioneer of photography and murderer
Maud Naftel, died 1890, watercolour flower painter
Sir John Pretyman Newman, died 1947, Conservative politician and British Army officer.
Rick Parfitt, died 2016, guitarist with Status Quo
Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford, died 1891
Elizabeth Russell, Duchess of Bedford, died 1897
Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, died 1937
Julian Sturgis, died 1904 poet, lyricist and librettist
George Tomline, died 1889, politician
Alan Turing, died 1954, known as father of computer science
Beatrice Webb, died 1943, labour historian and social reformer

Thirteen holders of the Victoria Cross are recorded to have been cremated here.
There were 137 Commonwealth service personnel from both World Wars cremated here. A memorial panel fixed onto the wall of the columbarium by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists the names. Numbers after some entries indicate niches in the columbarium, in other cases the ashes were scattered.