Most Promising New Funeral Director
Winner: Poppy Mardall
Runner-up: Stacey Bentley
Embalmer of the Year
Winner: Liz Davis
Runner-up: Angie Maclachlan.
The Eternal Slumber Award for Coffin Supplier of the Year
Winner: Yuli Somme
Runner-up: Roger Fowle.
Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death
Winner: Jean Francis
Runner-up: Pia Interlandi
Crematorium Attendant of the Year
Winner: Andy Barlow, Colwyn Bay crematorium.
Runner-up: Mandy Ryan and Martin McEvilly, Redditch crematorium
Best Internet Bereavement Resource
Winner: Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds for Say Their Name, a video made for the Compassionate Friends — http://beyondgoodbye.co.uk/?page_id=3918
Runner-up: Teresa Evans — http://evansaboveonline.co.uk/
The Blossom d’Amour Award For Funeral Floristry
Winner: Heather Gorringe
Runner-up: Donald Thornford
Funeral Celebrant of the Year
Winner: Barbara Millar
Runner-up: Lynne Watson
Cemetery of the Year
Winner: Rotherfield Greys
Runner-up: Sun Rising
Gravedigger of the Year
Winner: Stuart Goodacre from Horncastle, Lincolnshire.
Runner-up: Paul Rackham from Diss in Norfolk
Best Funeral Arranger
Winner: Dee Besley – Rosedale Funeral Home
Runner-up: Angela Bailey — Harrison Funeral Home
The Bereavement Register Funeral Director of the Year
Winner: John Harris — T Cribb & Sons
Runner-up David Summers — AW Lymn, The Family Funeral Service
GreenAcres Woodland Burials Green Funeral Director of the Year
Winner: Rosie Grant, Natural Endings
Association of Green Funeral Directors Greenest Funeral Director in the AGFD
Lifetime Achievement Award
Winner: Paula Rainey Crofts
Runner-up: Josefine Speyer
This Good Funeral Awards ceremony constituted just one event in a weekend of countless highlights which brought together, in a spirit of amity and good felllowship, more than 100 people of all sorts who work with the bereaved. More to follow. If you’d like to write about how it was for you, please send your copy to: charles@goodfuneralguide.co.uk
A HUGE thank you to Brian Jenner, without whose inspiration and tireless organisation the Good Funeral Awards weekend would be no more than a very good idea.