Lord de Mauley is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He served as a Director of the Standard Chartered Merchant Bank Asia and Samuel Montagu & Co Limited. After the House of Lords Act in 1999, Lord de Mauley was the first new peer to be elected to a hereditary seat in the House of Lords. 

He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Defra and previously a Government Lord-in-Waiting.  In opposition he was a Whip and Shadow Minister for Children, Schools, Families and Energy and Climate Change.

Lord de Mauley became Honorary President and a member of the Cremation Society's Council in 2018 and is a director of the Society's subsidiary, the London Cremation Company plc (LCC).

Ulf Lagerström, LLM

Mr Ulf Lagerström was appointed as Vice-President of the Society on 18 February 2010. He holds a Master of Laws (LLM) degree (University of Stockholm) and is a Chamberlain of the Royal Court of Sweden. He has been a Director at the Ministry of Finance; Senior Vice-President of Nordbanken; General Counsellor and Head of the Department of Legal and Administrative Affairs of the Church of Sweden and Managing Director of The Swedish Federation of Cemeteries and Crematoria (of which he is now a Trustee) and Ignis Insurance Group.

He is a past President of the International Cremation Federation (1997-2005).

Professor Douglas Davies
Ph.D., D.Litt., Hon. Dr. Theol, FAcSS, FLSW, FBA

Professor Douglas Davies, PhD (Nottingham University,) Master of Letters and Doctor of Letters (Oxford University), Honorary Doctor of Theology (University of Uppsala, Sweden), Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.  Douglas was appointed as Vice-President of the Society on 22 November 2016.  He trained in Anthropology and Theology, teaching at Nottingham University before becoming Professor in the Study of Religion and Director of The Centre for Death and Life Studies at Durham University. He has published many books on traditional and natural burial, on cremation, and on the theology of death. He edited the Encyclopedia of Cremation in 2005. He is also internationally known as an expert on Mormonism.

Professor Hilary J. Grainger OBE (Chair)
BA(Hons), PhD, PFHEA, FRSA

Professor Grainger has been a member of the Cremation Society’s Council since 2008, taking over as Chair in 2019.

She is Professor (Emeritus) of Architectural History at University of the Arts London and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University and a co-opted Council Member of Bishop Grosseteste University. Hilary is the acknowledged authority on the architecture of British crematoria and on the late Victorian architect Sir Ernest George. She has published and lectured widely in Europe and America and her pioneering book, “Death Redesigned: British Crematoria, History, Architecture and Landscape”, received a joint commendation from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals as an outstanding reference book published in 2006. Her monograph “The Architecture of Sir Ernest George” was published by Spire books in 2011 and shortlisted for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain Alice Davis Medallion. She is co-author (with Honorary Vice-President Douglas Davies, and former Council members Dr Peter Jupp and Stephen White) of “Cremation in Modern Scotland: History, Architecture and the Law” (Birlinn, 2017) which resulted from research funded by the Leverhulme Trust and hosted by the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. Her latest books: “Designs on Death: The Architecture of Scottish Crematoria” was published in 2020 (Birlinn). Hilary is a Past President of the Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS), Former National Chair of the The Victorian Society (2010-2024) and chair of the Fabric Advisory committee of Lichfield Cathedral. She was appointed a Director of CAMEO (Crematoria Abatement of Mercury Emissions Organisation) in July 2019 and a non-executive director of the London Cremation Company. She is President of the International Cremation Federation.

Professor Grainger was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours List for Services to Higher Education.

Colin Rickman
DipFD, BIE       

Colin Rickman studied engineering at Southampton. He changed career in 1973 to train as a funeral director and embalmer with a funeral director in Poole. He joined the Co-operative Funeral Service in 1981 and has held various senior management roles, including managing crematoria, cemeteries, woodland burial grounds, hospital mortuaries and bereavement services. He is a Past President of the Bournemouth and District Association of Funeral Directors and the Co-operative Funeral Service Managers Association, a Past Governor of Lions Club International and a member of the London Association of Funeral Directors. He is Managing Director in Business consultancy for Bereavement services and Director of Selsey Community Solar farm.

He has been a member of the Council since 2015.

Professor Heather Conway
LLB, PhD

Professor Conway is Professor of Property Law and Death Studies at Queen's University Belfast. Her research focuses on the substantive laws surrounding the treatment of the dead, the fate of corpses and who has decision-making powers over the recently deceased. Her areas of interest include the resolution of family disputes surrounding funerals, exhumation and commemoration, and their underlying reasons; the legal status of funeral instructions; and the legal issues around burial, cremation and other bodily disposal methods. Heather is the author of The Law and the Dead (Routledge, 2016) She has been a member of the Council since 2017 and is the current President of the Association for the Study of Death and Society (‘ASDS’).

She has been a member of the Council since 2017.

Debbie Kerslake

After a career spanning 18 years in social work, Debbie moved into the Voluntary Sector where she spent 18 years with the charity Cruse Bereavement Support, the last ten years as Chief Executive. Since retiring Debbie has become a Comunity Researcher undertaking research projects for the Universities of Birmingham, Keele and Wolverhampton as well as for Birmingham Voluntary Services Council (BVSC) where she also delivers training and mentoring. 

Debbie continues to be actively involved in the field of bereavement, speaking at conferences and undertaking research, with a particular interest in the emerging role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in grief and bereavement. She is a member of the International Workgroup on Death, Dying and Bereavement and is on the Board of Brum YODO, supporting conversations and greater openess around death and dying. 

Debbie has been on the Board of the Cremation Society since 2019. 

Richard Clarke 
MA BFP FCA DChA MIoD

Richard Clarke trained as a chartered accountant and was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers from 1990 until 2002 when he became a sole practitioner and was able to increase his involvement in charities. He has served as Honorary Treasurer at five charities including twelve years at Cruse Bereavement Care and is a member of the Honorary Treasurers’ Forum. He was a board member of The ExtraCare Charitable Trust for twenty years until 2026 where amongst other roles he was the Chair of the Audit Committee. He has been at Trustee for the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society London Branch since 2022 including three years as Chair.

Richard has been a member of Council since 2021.

Bishop Christopher Foster 

Christopher Foster chaired the Churches Funerals’ Group for a decade and has over forty years experience of leading funeral services and supporting the families and friends of those who had died. He was Bishop of Portsmouth, with oversight of south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, until 2021 and a Lord Spiritual in the House of Lords. He had served previously as a bishop and priest in Hertfordshire, north London, Oxford and Wolverhampton following time as an academic economist at Durham and Cambridge. 

He is a non-executive director of NHS Bath and North-east Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire, NHS Dorset, and NHS Somerset. He is also a trustee and board member of the Royal Hospital for Neurodisability. 

He joined the Council in 2022. 

Lucille Furie

Lucille joined Glasgow City Council in 1981 and following a number of challenging roles within the City Council, joined Bereavement Services in 1985 where she found her vocational calling.  Lucille transitioned to the role of Bereavement Services Manager and Registrar in 1995, fulfilling the position for 27 years until taking early retirement in 2012.  Early retirement was short-lived with Lucille being approached to be appointed as manager of Glasgow Crematorium (the first crematorium built in Scotland), a natural synergy from managing the Scotland’s largest burial and cremation authority in Scotland.  Lucille continues to lead the Glasgow Crematorium team.

Lucille became a member of the Cremation Society’s Council in 2025.

Ian Rudkin

Ian’s career in the cremation sector began following a total career change in the late 1980s when he joined Worthing Borough Council as Assistant Manager and Deputy Registrar or the Borough’s Technical Services Director.  During Ian’s 25 years with the Borough Council he worked on a number of projects including pandemic planning; assisting the coroner with the Shoreham air disaster; overseeing improved practices and facilities to prioritise environmental sustainability, whilst balancing the needs of bereaved families.  In 2014, Ian joined Southern Coop’s ELS leadership team as Manager Registrar where he was able to contribute to policy development, ethical standards and educational initiatives. Since retiring from full-time industry service, Ian has continued as an examiner for the FBCA TEST Scheme and an FBCA inspector for the compliance inspection process, whilst also acting as consultant providing interim management and training.  Ian became a member of the Society’s Council in 2025.

Wendy Buchan - Executive Officer & Secretary to The Cremation Society

Sue Jackson - PA to the Executive Officer

Amy Marsh - Sub-Editor - Pharos International

Fay Leahy - Bookkeeper (self-employed)