W.S. Harrison Funeral Directors

At W. S. Harrison, we are proud to be a Dignity Funeral Director. Our funeral business sits in the Dignity family which means we are supported by an organisation that provides stability and holds us to a very high standard of care, facilities and service.

If a loved one has passed, our step-by-step guide will help support you on the actions to take, including getting started on how to arrange a funeral. If you feel that you would benefit from additional support and personal guidance, please get in touch with us and we will talk you through everything.

When someone dies, you should aim to call your Funeral Director as soon as possible, after you have called the doctor. This allows for you to arrange for the deceased to be collected and to be brought into our care as soon as they are ready.

Your loved one will be cared for by our Funeral Directors. Once they have been brought into our care, they will be thoughtfully looked after at either one of our funeral homes or one of our care centres. Your Funeral Director will be able to confirm the details of this so you will know where your loved one is at all times.

If you wish to visit the Chapel of Rest during the time before the funeral, please speak to one of our Funeral Directors who will be happy to arrange a suitable date and time for you to visit. It is important to make an appointment so that the Chapel of Rest is available for you to use and your loved one is prepared for your visit.

If the cause of death means that visiting could be distressing, or if their death was caused by a hazardous illness, you should seek the advice of your Funeral Director.

Having to let people know that someone has passed away can be a very difficult and stressful situation to go through. The way you break the news to people will completely depend on how well you know them and their relationship with the person who has passed away. If you’re in the position of having to inform family and friends, we hope you find this guide to announcing a death useful.

We can take care of helping you to action your loved ones funeral plan, as the process is very straightforward. To get started, please call us on 0191 215 0775 and we can talk you through what happens next.

We are a member of the National Association of Funeral Directors and as such we abide by The Funeral Director Code. We also have a legal obligation to try and ensure the person who is arranging a funeral has the right to do so, or has permission from those who do. If you are aware that someone has been appointed as the administrator, you should only arrange the funeral with this person's agreement. If there is no Will or Letters of Administration, then the responsibility would pass to the next of kin.

A Memorial is a way of creating a lasting memory to help remember a loved one.

Dignity has been established for over 200 years and is one of the UK’s leading providers of Funerals and with an ‘Excellent’ Trustpilot rating (03/24). We are proud to help our customers every year with a diverse range of Memorial products and services to help remember their loved ones.

We offer a wide range of products – from traditional headstones, kerb sets, urns and benches to remembrance trees, plaques and vases. We also offer more personal and modern options such as jewellery, pin badges and photo related memorial products. As well as completely customised items.

From 9 September 2024, there will no longer be a doctor's fee in England and Wales when arranging a funeral. This is because from this date, all deaths in England and Wales will be independently viewed, either by a relevant coroner or by a Medical Examiner and the cost will be met by the NHS.

A Medical Examiner is a specifically trained independent senior doctor who will scrutinise all deaths across a local area that do not fall under the coroner's jurisdiction. By providing a greater level of scrutiny over the cause of deaths; it is hoped that the introduction of Medical Examiners will make it less likely that unnatural causes of death will go unnoticed; that the number of deaths unnecessarily referred to the coroner will be reduced and that national data about causes of death will be captured with greater accuracy.

Medical Examiners, or Medical Examiner Officers, will also be available to meet with families, or their representatives, if they wish to discuss the cause of death.