LONDON LETTER:The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, who epitomised loneliness in death, might remind us of the increasing number of people being buried at the public's expense, writes MARK HENNESSY
IMMORTALISED BY the Beatles, the real Eleanor Rigby’s final resting place lies in St Peter’s Church in Woolton in Liverpool, where Paul McCartney and John Lennon first met at a church fete at which Lennon’s band, the Quarrymen, performed.
For millions, her life epitomises aching loneliness, illustrated in the song by Father McKenzie “wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave” after her funeral to which “nobody came”. In reality, Lennon, who claimed to have written about 70 per cent of the song’s lyrics, took some artistic liberties, but not too many.
Born Eleanor Rigby Whitfield in 1895, Rigby looked after her half-sisters, to whom she was devoted, after her mother’s death; married late, only to endure the pain of not being able to have children of her own; and died in October 1939 from a brain haemorrhage.
She did not, however, suffer the indignity of a pauper’s grave, lying now as she does in the Rigby family plot – one visited every year by thousands of Beatles fans from around the globe, even if few of her own line remain.
However, if Rigby escaped that final humiliation, others today do not. Last month, a freedom of information request by a Welsh newspaper revealed that 517 people were buried or cremated at the expense of local councils last year.
The numbers dying with no one to care are increasing. Between 2005 and 2007 there were 229 paupers’ funerals in the area in question, costing Welsh councils £158,500, but the number grew to 288 between 2008 and 2010, costing £218,000.
The youngest pauper, from Bridgend, was aged just 21, while the oldest, from Cardiff, was 96. One service two years ago cost Merthyr Tydfil council just £109.99 – though the average bill for a funeral is £2,700.
The number of such unmourned burials is set to rise significantly, says Kate Woodthorpe of the Centre for Death and Society at Bath University, who points out that an additional 100,000 people will be dying annually by 2030.
“The evidence is that when people age, their networks decrease and they become very isolated. It is as much about money as it is about relationships. If they don’t have people to step in and help pay for things, then this is what is going to happen,” she said.
In Cumbria, the local hospital trust, which runs hospitals in Carlisle and Whitehaven, recently reported that it had to make arrangements in 17 cases where members of the deceased’s family had refused to do so.
For each, the trust paid for a burial, or cremation, along with providing a basic coffin, one wreath, a vicar and hymns for the funeral service, while also putting a death notice in the local press for those who might like to stand by the graveside.
Chris Sievey, creator of the comic character Frank Sidebottom, could have made the pauper’s journey last year, until friends were encouraged by an internet campaign to pay for his funeral.
If Sievey was spared, however, 2,200 people in England and Wales were not, according to figures produced by the Local Government Association (LGA), which pointed out that one local authority had to pay for 258 such funerals.
Sometimes the issue is not neglect, or loneliness, but money.
Bereavement grants in the UK now stand at £700, far short of the average £2,000 needed, leaving some poor families struggling to pay for the living unable to make up the difference.
The LGA’s report makes depressing reading: three men are buried or cremated at the expense of the local council for every woman; while over half of the deceased were over 65.
Under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, councils must pay for a funeral, if there is no else to do so – though it can recover the costs from the estate, assuming that the deceased has left any assets.
“Councils will try their hardest to establish the faith of the deceased and arrange a dignified service. If not, then a simple ceremony takes place followed by a burial or cremation,” the LGA said in its report.
Two-fifths of councillors reported a rise in the number of cases in which relatives were unwilling to contribute; 60 per cent reported more instances in which families were unable to pay; and half said more people were dying without friends or family. The numbers refusing to pay are higher in England than in Wales.
Sometimes, the callousness displayed is breathtaking. Undertakers tell stories of cases in which children questioned whether they had to pay for a parent’s funeral even though they were the sole beneficiaries of the will.
“These tragic figures speak for themselves. People, mostly elderly, are dying around us with no family or friends nearby to care for them,” said David Rogers, chairman of the LGA’s community wellbeing board.
“It is a sad fact that there are thousands of people across the country with no family or friends to arrange, attend or pay for their funeral. Our ageing population is growing rapidly and so is the worrying picture of isolation and loneliness across the country,” he said.