History Part 5

Information about the formation of the BIU is limited. Despite the appointment of a chairman, vice-chairman, secretary, treasurer, trustees and members of the council the BIU was without a president and vice-president. There was, however, modest enthusiasm and at a meeting in October 1898 a paper was read on the future of the Institute. The speaker was a Marylebone undertaker who would play an important part in the organizational development of the industry until his death in 1933: Henry Sherry. He spoke of the need for an association which ‘…should watch over the interests of the trade, and which…would earn the respect of municipal and governing bodies’. The issue of registration of undertakers was discussed at this meeting before a motion resolved to the effect, ‘That the BIU do all in its power to petition or otherwise to get parliament to make some form of compulsory registration.’