Burial cancelled after funeral directors forget to dig grave

Shocked mourners who attended a funeral at a village church discovered just before the service started that there was no final resting place for the deceased as a grave had not been dug.

The funeral of 83-year old Marjorie Howells was arranged through the Co-op Funeral service in Hatfield Road, St Albans. But when her family and friends arrived at St Leonard's Church in Sandridge for the interment no grave could be found.

The distraught family and had to leave the cemetery and those who could were told to return the next day when the grave would be dug.



Church warden Roland King said: "I've never known anything like this to happen before in my 50 years as a warden.

He said he had been puzzled on the Friday preceding the funeral to see no grave had been dug but had assumed it would be done on Saturday or early Monday morning. It was his understanding that the person responsible for organising the funeral had thought the grave-digging would be done by the church.

A spokesperson for The Co-operative Funeralcare apologised for being unable to carry out Mrs Howells' funeral as arranged and extended the firm's sympathy to her family and friends. He said: "We are currently reviewing the circumstances of what happened and will ensure necessary lessons are learnt to prevent such an unfortunate situation occurring in the future. We recognise that Mrs Howells' funeral did not meet our usual high standards."