The Remarkable Rise of Cremation in a Scottish City: Glasgow 1930-1962

Modern cremation came early to Scotland, with the opening of Maryhill in 1895 by the Scottish Burial Reform and Cremation Society. However, Glaswegians were not easily persuaded to switch from burial and the second crematorium was not built for 34 years. The rapid success of Warriston, Edinburgh, opened in 1929 was not only a great achievement for Scottish cremationists but stimulated the building for four more crematoria by 1939.

This pair of papers describes how the revival of the cremation concept inspired two local authorities to build Scotland's first municipal crematorium. A first attempt by Glasgow City Council ended in failure in 1931 after four years work. Lanarkshire County Council made better progress and secured some funding by 1939. The project, postponed by the War, was resumed in 1945 and Daldowie was finally opened in 1955. Glasgow City Council resumed crematorium plans in 1951 and opened The Linn in 1962.

Special attention will be given to the architecture and landscape design of Daldowie and The Linn. The papers will analyse how these two crematoria represent critical features in the movement to cremation in modern Scotland.

Peter C. Jupp is a minister of the United Reformed Church. He was Director of the National Funerals College Project 1992-7. With Glennys Howarth, he founded the International Conference on ‘The Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal’ and the quarterly journal Mortality. He has co-edited several books in death studies and published From Dust to Ashes: cremation and the British way of death in 2006. He serves on the Council of the Cremation Society of Great Britain and was its Chairman 2001-9. He is a non-executive director of the London Cremation Co plc. With a team based at Durham University, he is now researching the development of cremation in modern Scotland.

Hilary is Dean of Quality Assurance and Academic Development at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London. A graduate of Leeds University, she is an architectural and design historian, and has taught in Higher Education at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels for over thirty five years. A specialist in late nineteenth and early twentieth century English domestic architecture and design, she is a leading authority on the late Victorian architect Sir Ernest George and on the architecture of British crematoria and has published and lectured widely in these areas. Her book ‘Death Redesigned’ was published in 2006 and her new book ‘The Architecture of Sir Ernest George and Partners’ is to be published at the end of this year. She is a Trustee of the Victorian Society, a Trustee and Council Member of The Cremation Society and a UK Universities Institutional Auditor.