9 November 2013 – The Good Funeral Guide

A warrior’s sendoff

It all started with an announcement in the Blackpool Gazette (above).

Then it was taken up by Sgt Rick Clement of The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. Rick lost both of his legs to an IED in Afghanistan. He runs a fundraising website “in order to give something back to the various charities that have helped me and my family on the road to recovery.

Rick put a message on his Facebook page echoing the call for people to attend the funeral of Harold Jellicoe ‘Coe’ Percival, who served in RAF Bomber Command as ground crew in world war two and thereafter led a nomadic life, much of it in Australia, before somehow ending up in Blackpool. He never married. All family ties had dissolved.

The Facebook appeal went viral and was shared by comedian Jason Manford. It now looks as if there’s going to be a terrific attendance at Mr Percival’s funeral, which is scheduled for 12 midday on Monday (11.11).

Well done to Mr Clement’s undertaker, Roland Whitehead and Daughter, for their original announcement. And a big thank you from the GFG to the funeral worker in Blackpool who was kind enough to ring us up and tell us about this.

Full story here.

Lest you forget

Remembrance Sunday brings the nation together in commemoration of those who fought and died in war. Old soldiers don their medals and attend church parades. Those who think this smacks too much of glorification mark the event in other ways.

But no one will pass through Sunday and then Monday (11.11) unaffected by the anniversary. Everyone has their own take on it.

For inhabitants of the Isle of Portland, where this blog will lay its bones, Remembrance Sunday has a particularly poignant resonance. You see, the Cenotaph was dug from the bowels of our island, and we islanders have a strong sense of connectedness with our exiled stone.

The Cenotaph was actually quarried in virgin ground. Once enough stone had been dug for the monument, the workings were filled in and quarried no more.

The Cenotaph was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and incorporates some sophisticated geometry. The sides are not parallel, but if extended would meet at a point some 980 feet above the ground. The horizontal surfaces are in fact sections of a sphere whose centre would be 900 feet below ground.

Portland stone commemorates those who have died in battle in other ways. All those headstones you see in cemeteries maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and in cemeteries and churchyards across Britain: all Portland stone.

The National Memorial Arboretum? Portland stone.

As is, appropriately for an organisation created to bring an end to war, the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Portland stone is not associated exclusively with solemn occasions. No royal wedding would be complete without an appearance by the happy couple on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Yes, you guessed it: Portland stone.