It wasn’t until 1935 that the first major initiative to replace the term ‘undertaker’ with ‘funeral director’ emerged. This was in an effort to professionalise, or at least in an outward sense, raise the status of this trade with a title that demonstrated the social as well as the medical activities of the role.

Just as the medical trade in Britain was regularised in its treatment of the living, those operating in the funeral trade wanted the same recognition for their care for the dead.