The first cremation was carried out at Woking in March 1885. The deceased was a Mrs Jeannette C. Pickersgill, said to be a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles.
However, it wasn't until 1885 that the first official cremation in the UK took place at Woking, for Jeanette Pickersgill, a well-known literary and scientific figure.
The Earliest Instance of Cremation
The archaeological record cites the Mungo Lady, the approximately 20,000 year-old remains of a partly cremated body found near Australia's Lake Mungo, as one of the world's oldest known cremations.
Princess Margaret is the only senior royal member to have ever been cremated. She died in 2002 and did not have a traditional procession for her coffin to her final resting place, reports MyLondon. Instead, she was cremated in Berkshire - the Slough Crematorium.
Although humans have practised cremation for millennia, the advent of Christianity and the influence of the church in Britain stopped it happening here for hundreds of years. This was because the church rejected it, believing it to be pagan and a practice which would make the resurrection of the body impossible.
In Christian countries, cremation fell out of favor due to the Christian belief in the physical resurrection of the body. Christians also used burial as a mark of difference from the Iron Age European pre-Christian Pagan religions, which usually cremated their dead.
Of all world religions, Islam is probably the most strongly opposed to cremation. Unlike Judaism and Christianity, there is little diversity of opinion about it. Cremation is considered by Islam to be an unclean practice.
Why was Princess Margaret cremated? In the aftermath of her death, “royal watchers” told The New York Times that Princess Margaret had opted to be cremated so that her remains could fit alongside her father King George VI's grave in a vault that was made especially to hold him specifically.
The Queen's coffin was placed on a marble slab in a section of the chapel known as the Quire, which was then lowered into the vault. The newly-appointed King Charles II and Queen Consort Camilla were among the mourners paying their final respects to the late monarch, who died aged 96 on September 8.
The monarchs and their families in the chapel are not in soil to decompose in the way most people who are buried in cemeteries do. According to a report in The Guardian, it can take 10-15 years for a body to breakdown to a skeleton if buried in soil.
Is Cremation Allowed? Although traditional burial procedure which reflects respect for the body is still normal Catholic practice, cremation is allowed by the Catholic Church for justifiable reasons. Cremation would ordinarily take place after the Funeral Liturgy.
Human ashes do not dissolve in the ocean's waters. However, being a coarse, gritty, sand-like substance, the ashes will scatter throughout the ocean with no negative effects.
Uribe had slimmed down to about 867 pounds (394 kilograms), after his peak weight of 1,230 pounds (560 kilograms) was certified in 2006 as a Guinness World Record.
Cremation in the Old Testament
“The people decided to cremate Saul and Jonathan and then bury their ashes because their bodies had been mutilated by the Philistines. In another instance, Achan and his family were cremated after being executed for sinning against Israel (Joshua 7:25).
Church of England funeral traditions
You can choose to have a cremation or burial. Organ donation and embalming are both allowed by the Church of England. Anglican funerals centre on God's love and the hope that the deceased person will enter Heaven.
While most people view traditional burials as the more common and most historical disposition method, cremation actually has a far more ancient history. In fact, historians believe that humans started burning their dead as early as 3000 B.C!
Alongside the King, Baron Parker - the Lord Chamberlain who was the most senior official in the late Queen's royal household - stood in front of the coffin and symbolically "broke" his wand of office by dismantling it into two halves and laying them on her coffin.
Man accused of attempting to grab at the Queen's coffin 'did not believe she was dead,' court hears. A man who appeared to grab the flag draped over the Queen's coffin did so because he did not believe she was dead and wanted to check for himself, a court has heard.
What happens after the funeral? After the funeral in Westminster, the Queen's coffin will be transferred to Windsor Castle, where there will be a committal service in St George's Chapel. She will be buried in the castle's King George VI Memorial Chapel, alongside her father, her mother, and her sister's ashes.
Technically, the Queen won't be buried as the only soil on her coffin will be from a ceremonial bowl of earth and scattered by King Charles during her funeral. Queen Elizabeth has been placed in a lead-lined casket that will lie inside a stone crypt.
At the service's conclusion, the Queen's coffin was lowered into the Royal Vault – the resting place of many past monarchs. Below the chapel lie King George III, IV and V, William IV and others. Last year Prince Philip, the Queen's husband, was also laid to rest there.
The word “buried” is a bit of a misnomer because the only soil to touch Queen Elizabeth's coffin was “a ceremonial silver bowl of red earth scattered by King Charles III during her funeral (Elizabeth similarly scattered red earth on the casket of her father King George VI),” The National Post reports.
Nor can the ashes be scattered in the air, land or sea since doing so would give the appearance of "pantheism, naturalism or nihilism," the guidelines said. It repeated church teaching that Catholics who choose to be cremated for reasons contrary to the Christian faith must be denied a Christian funeral.
In Islam, the deceased are to be buried within 24 hours. This was highlighted in media reports of the death of Osama bin Laden.
A 1986 report by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards states that cremation is against Jewish tradition and should be advised so by the Rabbi. The report goes on to say that if your family ignores the Rabbi's advice, the Rabbi may still choose to officiate the service at a funeral parlor before the cremation.