East Midlands funeral directors supports launch of UK’s first ‘uncollected ashes’ database

A.W. Lymn The Family Funeral Service, an award-winning independent funeral directors in the Midlands, is the first funeral director in the UK to address the lack of formal regulation of uncollected ashes in the industry - by creating a record on an online public register.

The family funeral directors which was first established in 1907 and now has funeral homes in Derby and south Derbyshire, has uploaded information of all cremated remains in its possession since before 2000 to ‘The Ashes Register’, a new initiative designed to map the location of ashes.

A total of 136 ashes have been uploaded to the online database by A.W. Lymn, with the oldest dating back to 1952. Amongst this list also includes decorated veteran, Air Commodore George Lawson CBE MC.

Uncollected ashes have been a longstanding challenge in the funeral industry, with an estimated hundreds of thousands of unclaimed urns sitting in funeral homes across the UK, some of which date back to the 19th century.

In the immediate aftermath of a funeral, it is the funeral director’s duty of care to look after the ashes. Stored in a locked room called a Columbarium, they are kept safe until whoever made the funeral arrangements is ready to collect them, with records kept in paper format as well as electronically centrally.

Explaining why ashes are then left in the possession of funeral directors for decades, Matthew Lymn Rose, Managing Director and fifth generation at A.W. Lymn, said: “It’s a saddening thought to think of ashes that have been left uncollected, however there are many reasons why this might occur.

“Sometimes, in the aftermath of a funeral, people can be in denial and taking possession of the ashes can be a hard thing to do. In other instances, there is a breakdown in communication amongst a family as to who will collect them. As ashes do not belong to anyone under British law, unless the person who made the funeral arrangements collects them, they go unclaimed.”

The National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) recommends its members store ashes for at least five years, with efforts being made to locate the rightful recipient before a funeral company can dispose of them. This often includes scattering them in a garden of remembrance or at a beauty spot with land owners’ permission.

On why A.W. Lymn have held onto cremated remains for so many years, Matthew said: “As a fifth-generation family business that has been supporting the bereaved in the region for nearing 120 years, we feel a deep sense of responsibility and duty of care to look after cremated remains in our possession, in the hope that they will one day find their way back to someone.

“We do however strongly believe that everyone deserves a final resting place, which is why we are so passionate about this new register. We hope that by leading the way in adding our records, other funeral directors will follow suit and it will become best practice within the industry, hopefully aiding in reducing the number of uncollected ashes stored at funeral branches across the country.”

The Ashes Register is a new online initiative, set up by founder Richard Martin. It’s a free service available to the public to register a set of ashes and mark the location of where they were scattered. The option to find lost ashes is a new element to the website, with A.W. Lymn being the first funeral directors to use its register.

On working with A.W. Lymn to bring this new service to the public, Richard said: “Our goal is simple and it’s to reunite as many people as possible with the ashes of a relative or loved one. We feel so passionate about history not being lost in time, which is why we set up this website to provide a space for people to document someone’s final resting place.

“We have received lots of support from leading companies and organisations in the cremation sector on the Ashes Register but A.W. Lymn is the first funeral directors to step forward and be involved in the unclaimed ashes section of the website. They are really paving the way in the industry and we hope this is the start of other funeral directors following suit.

Operating 28 funeral homes throughout Nottinghamshire and South Derbyshire and with one recently opened in Leicestershire, A.W. Lymn is an award-winning family business that prides itself on helping the bereaved with quality of service and value for money at the heart of its ethos.