Jeanette Pickersgill's cremation: first legal cremation in England (1885)

Jeanette Pickersgill, an English painter, became the first person legally cremated in the United Kingdom. Her cremation occurred at Woking Crematorium in Surrey on 26 March 1885, following the legal declaration of cremation's lawfulness in February 1884. Her ashes were subsequently interred at Kensal Green Cemetery.

Episodes

Background and detail

Background. The Cremation Society of England, founded in 1874, established Woking Crematorium in Woking in Surrey. The facility was tested in 1879 but could not process human remains until cremation was declared lawful in February 1884. This legal shift enabled the first official cremation in the UK to take place in Woking in 1885.

The Cremation. Jeanette Pickersgill, an English painter, died on 20 March 1885. She was cremated at Woking Crematorium on 26 March 1885, marking the first legal cremation in the United Kingdom. This event followed the trial of Dr. William Price, which established the legality of cremation.

Aftermath. Following her cremation, Jeanette Pickersgill's ashes were transported to Kensal Green Cemetery and placed in a wooden box in the catacomb under the Anglican Chapel, alongside those of William Crellin Pickersgill, who was cremated at Woking in 1887. By the end of 1885, 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.

People involved

Sources

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