© 2001 Funeral Service Training (London)

Websites by 3D Max
Tel: 01296 688114

David Grainger

David Grainger started working in the funeral business in 1989 as a driver/bearer with his present company, and in 1990 became a member of the management team. The training he received from the company  - established in 1879 - covered the full spectrum of funeral arranging and conducting. This grounding awoke a need to learn more about the profession and in 1991 he achieved the Diploma in Funeral Directing. Feeling that any knowledge gained should be passed on to others he decided to become a Tutor and was accredited in 1994. In 2000 he graduated from Birkbeck College with a degree in management.

BA (Hons) Dip FD MBIFD BA

Ray Hood  

Ray Hood has been associated with funeral service since 1974, being a registered tutor with the British Institute of Funeral Directors since 1990. He qualified as an embalmer, winning the trustees award for the highest theoretical examination results, in 1994, prior to going on to become an accredited tutor with the British Institute of Embalmers in 1999.

In 1997 he was invited to formally become an ‘International Honorary Member’ of ‘SIGMA PHI SIGMA’ an educational fraternity based at the University of Southern Illinois, faculty of ‘Applied Sciences and Arts’, and is entitled to all the rights and privileges appertaining to lawful membership. He has been a member of the European Association of Embalmers since its inception and is proud that his membership number is in single figures.

Ray has written for the BIFD Journal and the Funeral Service Journal. He is also involved with NVQ’s, having established the first Funeral Service NVQ Centre in the country at City of Westminster College, where he served as ‘Internal Verifier’. His NVQ activities also extend to areas outside of the funeral industry and, include ‘Training and Development’ and ‘Management’. He is also a ‘Key Skills’ and an ‘Institute of Management’ assessor, and has involvement with several ‘Advanced Modern Apprenticeship’ schemes.

Dip FD MBIFD MBIE MEAE

Brian Parsons  

Brian Parsons has worked in most aspects of funeral service since 1982. He Studied at the Lear School of Embalming and graduated from the University of Westminster in with a BA (hons) in Business Studies 1993. His PhD focused on the impact of change, during the twentieth century, on the funeral industry was awarded in 1997. He is a member of the British Institute of Embalmers (BIE), the British Institute of Funeral Directors (BIFD) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. He has been a BIFD Registered tutor since 1991.

He has written for the Journals of the BIE, BIFD, Institute of Burial and Cremation Administration, Funeral Service Journal, The Director (NFDA), Thanos and is author of The London Way of Death (Sutton Publishing 2001).  

Dip FD MBIFD MBIE LCIPD BA PhD