| Woking Crematorium | |
|---|---|
 Woking Crematorium in 2018 | |
 Interactive map of the Woking Crematorium area | |
| General information | |
| Type | Crematorium |
| Location | Hermitage Road,Woking, England |
| Opened | 1878 (1878) |
Woking Crematorium is acrematorium inWoking, a large town in the west ofSurrey, England. Established in 1878, it was the first custom-built crematorium in the United Kingdom and is closely linked to the history ofcremation in the UK.
The crematorium is in Woking, just outsideSt John's Village on Hermitage Road.Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is nearby but operated separately.
Woking Crematorium was founded in 1878, when a piece of land close to St John's Village was bought bySir Henry Thompson. He was a surgeon andPhysician to the Queen. In 1874, he was a founder and first president of theCremation Society of England. The one acre (0.4 hectares) of land on which the crematorium was to be established was purchased from theLondon Necropolis Company with the aid of subscriptions (at £200 each).[1]It was both secluded yet readily accessible, as theLondon Necropolis Railway, suitable for the conveyance of the dead, already ran between London Waterloo Station and Woking.[2] Thecremator was constructed by ProfessorPaolo Gorini ofLodi, 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 theHome 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 ofDr. William Price.[2]
On 26 March 1885, the first official cremation in the UK took place in Woking. The deceased wasMrs Jeannette C. Pickersgill, whomThe 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.[1]
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 ofBedford andWestminster. 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.[3] The chapel was available for use in January 1891.[2]
In 1892, 104 cremations were carried out at Woking.[2] In 1902, the first crematorium was opened in London (Golders Green Crematorium). By 1911, the original one-acre (0.4-hectare) site at Woking was extended to ten acres (four hectares) and a Garden of Remembrance added.[2]
Elected president of the Cremation Society in 1921, the11th Duke of Bedford had the original cremator from Woking transferred to a new chapel atGolders Green Crematorium, where it was later used for his own cremation in 1940.
Among those cremated here are:
Thirteen holders of theVictoria Cross are recorded to have been cremated here.[7]
There were 137 Commonwealth service personnel from bothWorld Wars cremated here. A memorial panel fixed onto the wall of the columbarium by theCommonwealth War Graves Commission lists the names. Numbers after some entries indicate niches in the columbarium, in other cases the ashes were scattered.[8]
Media related toWoking Crematorium at Wikimedia Commons
51°18′42″N0°36′10″W / 51.3118°N 0.6027°W /51.3118; -0.6027
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