White doves mark 125th anniversary of Frederick W Paine's opening in Kingston (From Surrey Comet)

White doves mark 125th anniversary of Frederick W Paine's opening in Kingston

7:10am Wednesday 1st July 2009

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A flock of white doves, soaring from the churchyard of All Saints, Kingston, last Saturday, brought a moving finale to a service of thanksgiving for the lives of Frederick William Paine and 250,000 others.

Mr Paine, the eldest of 11 children, was born in Norbiton in 1870. Twenty-four years later he established Frederick W Paine, the funeral company which has just reached its 125th anniversary and, along with its headquarters in Kingston’s Old London Road (where Frederick died suddenly in 1945), has 15 offices in or near the Royal borough.

The service was conducted by the Rev Jonathan Wilkes, Rector of All Saints, assisted by the Rev Martin Hislop, Vicar of St Luke’s, Kingston; the Rev Andrew Parks of Chessington Methodist Church; and the Rev David Netherwood, a retired United Reformed Church minister.

A company spokesman said: “The service was arranged to remember Frederick Paine, and departed loved ones for the 250,000 funerals we have arranged since 1884.”

During the services more than a hundred photographs of departed loves ones, submitted by their families and friends, were projected on to a giant screen in the church, and singing was led by Kingston Orpheus Choir and St Andrew’s Church Coir, Ham.

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