Undertakers/Funeral Directors

According to Leonie Liveris (1991: i), there was only one undertaker advertising for business prior to 1860. Edward Wood had premises at 7 Saint [not King] George's Terrace, and advertised 24 May 1834 in the Perth Gazette:

Undertaking is often a family business. In WA, such families have included Chipper, Purslowe, Bowra, O'Dea, and Davies. Among many others were Snell, Peters & Hogan, and Coulson.

The first Chipper in the Colony was John, who arrived in 1829 on the Caroline. His grandson Donald J. Chipper seems to have the one who started in the funeral business.

The first Purslowe was James William who arrived during the 1890s Gold Rush. He was a wheelwright and it was convenient for him to move on to to making coffins. He also happened to be a Methodist lay preacher.

I am grateful to Kim Chipper, himself a funeral director, for the explanation of this distinction between an undertaker and a funeral director:s

The difference between an undertaker and a funeral director is that an undertaker took the body from the home to the cemetery. The deceased was cared for in the home beforehand and placed in a coffin before the undertaker got there. The undertaker may later have provided the coffin.
A funeral director becomes involved almost immediately on the death of a person. They provide the means of registering the death by taking down the required details for the Registrar General, the details for the cemetery and the booking of the funeral time (there are limited times you can arrive at the cemetery) and the booking of the cremation or burial, providing a coffin or casket, providing embalming if required and advertising the funeral time if it's a public service. They also provide a venue for a viewing and private time for family at the funeral home, or booking a church service and priest or celebrant for the funeral service. In the meantime, they pick up the deceased and care for them until the funeral. In other words, a complete funeral service.

In 1892 Donald John Chipper Snr opened a branch in Fremantle at 83 Adelaide Street, which was managed at different times by Mr R Jarvis, and Stephen James Chipper II, Donald's older brother. This branch remained part of the business until November 1915 when it was sold to Joseph C. Semken.

Purslowe Chipper Funerals are now at 254 Hampton Road South Fremantle. This business is also known as Mareena Purslowe Funerals, established 1989.

[[../people/daviesarthurelvin.html|Arthur Elvin Davies]] (1867-1918) was a cabinet-maker and undertaker. The premises of Arthur E. Davies & Co., funeral directors, founded 1888, were at 9-13 Collie St, and then at what is now 85 Market Street, corner of Bannister Street. The business was sold to Bowra & O'Dea who closed the Market Street premises (which are now shops and offices) and moved to a new building at 312 South Street Hilton.

Prosser Scott & Co. are at 37 Adelaide Street Fremantle. Their website says the family business was established in 1927, but doesn't say where.

References, Links, Acknowledgements

Many thanks for information to Kim Chipper whose grandfather Donald John Chipper started the family business in Murray Street Perth in 1889.

de Mouncey, P. E. C. 1928, [[../earlydays/1/mouncey1.html|'Births, marriages and deaths records of Western Australia, with reference to other states, (Part 1)]]', Early Days, vol. 1, part 3: 33-45. [[../earlydays/1/mouncey3.html|Part 2]].

Joske E.J.P. 1982, 'A strange fatality', A Push from the Bush, UNE, Armidale, 13, November: 65: "... of 72 deaths in the colony from June 1829 to September 1830 given in the census of 1832, apart from those murdered by natives, drowning or childbirth deaths, the majority of deaths are monotonously reported as being due to dysentery and scurvy".

Joske, R.A. and E.J.P. Joske 1979, 'Mortality patterns in WA 1829-1855', Medical Journal of Australia 1: 508-510.

Liveris, Leonie B. 1991, Dismal Trader: The Undertaker Business in Perth 1860-1939, privately published.

Liveris, Leonie B. 2009, Monuments and Masons: Cemeteries at Karrakatta Fremantle Guildford Midland, MCB.

Purslowe & Chipper history page.

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 19 March, 2023 and hosted at freotopia.org/undertakers/index.html (it was last updated on 19 September, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.