The burial trade: undertakers – roles, records and photographs
By Christina Ealing-Godbold, Research Librarian, Information and Client Services | 16 June 2026
The Dearly Departed exhibition at State Library of Queensland, Dearly Departed: death in life, has generated considerable interest in the records of undertakers. Leaving the world with appropriate ritual and the trappings of importance was as vital to our Victorian and Edwardian era ancestors as christenings and weddings. The end was expected to mirror the success and progress of the person’s life. The visibility of the funeral and its statements of status were ones that people took out insurance to fund. Now usually called funeral directors, undertakers played an important role in society at a time when status and propriety were the most important components of lives well lived.
Family watch from a nearby verandah as a funeral procession with horse-drawn hearses passes by, Brisbane.
Brisbane has several long-term undertaking businesses that have buried our dearly departed family members over more than a hundred years Trusting a funeral director to deal appropriately and sensitively with your loved one is the basis of choosing a provider of that service. Records of Brisbane undertakers illustrate that families used the same company for generations. There was also a preference based on religious grounds; with a firm like K.M. Smith performing more Catholic services and others like Cannon and Cripps being favoured by Protestant families.
Family historians can find valuable information from funeral records. As well as finding out who paid for the funeral and choices reflecting religion and respectability, the records include deaths that occurred in hospitals, institutions and maternity establishments. This allows historians to piece together the life story of a person who may have appeared to have vanished. Knowing who paid for the burial can sometimes assist in unravelling family mysteries. This information can be extremely valuable when the deceased person is estranged from their family or community or had no known next of kin in Australia.
Horse-drawn funeral hearse accompanied by the driver, Brisbane, 1916. John Oxley Library.
Image number: 29789-0001-0005
Early undertakers and funeral directors
The business of the undertaker was one that lent itself to those with stonemasonry, printing, cabinet making and upholstery skills as well as the understanding of the chemical processes of embalming and make up (the work of the employed mortician). Undertaking was indeed a business of many trades brought together to commemorate those who had come to life’s end. In regional Queensland, undertakers were often store owners, post office operators, publicans and newspaper printers.
The earliest known funeral director in Brisbane was well known builder Andrew Petrie who operated his undertaking business from Petrie’s Bight on the Brisbane River. Known as a stonemason and builder, Petrie called his business Petrie’s Undertaking Establishment. His stonemasonry skills would have been useful for the monumental work associated with funerals. His youngest son George Barney Petrie took over the business and ran it until the end of the 1870s. In 1909 Alexander Gow became the owner of the first and oldest funeral business in Queensland after it had several owners in the period between 1878 and 1908, including Walter Barrett.
Another company that had started in a different line of work was John Hislop and Sons. John Hislop along with his brother James, were prize-winning furniture manufacturers and upholsterers with a store in Queen Street, Brisbane. They also conducted funerals from the 1870s. By 1889, the business was split into two separate companies. The skills of upholstery would have been very useful in an undertaking business – for the lining of coffins as well as the fit out of the coaches and hearses.
Hislop and Sons Undertakers custom built 1964 Chevrolet Impala funeral hearse
Horse-drawn funeral hearse decorated with plumes and ceremonial regalia, accompanied by the driver and nearby attendants, Brisbane, 1890s.
Records and indexes
State Library has various indexes to the records of funeral directors, and some record books and registers from the firms. In addition, the library has photographs showing the hearses and undertaking premises of earlier days.
K.M. Smith
Kate Mary Smith was born in Ireland in 1847. She emigrated to Australia with her brother in the 1860s. In the 1870s, Kate married a cabinet maker, John Smith who used his carpentry skills to produce coffins and became an undertaker in Fortitude Valley. Kate Mary took over the business following her husband’s death in 1886, learning the skills of embalming and ran a successful business that is still operating today. Undertaking was an unusual business for a woman in the late nineteenth century as many women in this era did not even attend funerals. Kate Mary Smith died in 1932, having given her name to the business that she built on personal service.
K.M. Smith in Brisbane had the contracts for burial for the Queensland Government and the Defence Forces as well as those who died at the Brisbane General Hospital and the Lady Bowen Lying in Hospital, including babies. Records for 1907-1960 consist of funeral ledgers with name, date, address, cost of funeral expenses and discharge of debt. The names entered are not those of the deceased, but those of the person to whom the account was sent.
There are several collections relating to the K.M. Smith funeral business.
Alex Gow
Alex Gow came to Queensland in the 1860s from Fife in Scotland and as a young man, became a printer and compositor. Alex took over the undertaking business of the Petrie family in 1908 and 1909. His printing skills would have also been useful in preparing services for the dearly departed. The firm still operates and has employed 6 generations of the Gow family. The firm was established in lower Queen Street, then in Bowen Hills but now has other branches and has established a strong and lasting reputation as undertakers in Brisbane.
Alex Gow Undertaker's premises at 550 Queen Street, Brisbane, Queensland.
Rather than the records of the burials, the library has an index to those burials that were performed by the company between 1913 and 1975. The index is contained in the Queensland cemetery records Series nos. 76-87 and is available at FAMHIS on level 3.
- Alex Gow Funeral Directors' records index / [compiled by Beryl Searle]. Searle, Beryl; Alex Gow (Firm); Genealogical Society of Queensland.
Cannon and Cripps
The firm of Cannon and Cripps was formed in 1887 by Alfred Cannon and his brother-in-law Joseph Cripps. The brothers were from Waddeston in Buckinghamshire and arrived in Brisbane in 1873. Staunch Methodists and members of the Protestant Alliance, the business attracted the Protestant trade. Cannon and Cripps were in George Street and much of their burial work was conducted at Toowong Cemetery. Cannon and Cripps also had branches in Fortitude Valley and South Brisbane.
Their records were divided into account books, burial registers and diaries – which burial was booked on what day. The account books cover a very long period from 1897 through to 1967. The dearly departed could be buried in English Oak, Cedar or sarcophagus-shaped German coffins.
Flyer for Cannon and Cripps, Undertakers in Brisbane, Queensland, 1902
For Cannon and Cripps, the library holds both an index and the actual funeral director's records, as listed below.
- Index to Canon [i.e. Cannon] and Cripps Funeral Directors' records. This index is arranged by surname and is in book form. It is part of the Queensland cemetery records series nos. 89-98. It refers to a fiche or register number in the Cannon and Cripps records.
- Cannon and Cripps Funeral Directors Records 1897-1975 / Cannon and Cripps (Firm). This collection mainly consists of account ledgers and burial ledgers, giving financial information, and personal details of the clients. The collection also contains internal account keeping records. Some restrictions apply to certain sections of these records and in some cases, it will be necessary to obtain permission from Cannon and Cripps. Access restrictions: Restricted access. Restrictions in line with Registrar General's office. Pre-1890 unrestricted. 1890-1964 immediate family only. 1965 onwards - requires written permission from Cannon and Cripps.
Other Funeral Director’s Records and Indexes
Metropolitan Funerals
- Index to Metropolitan Funeral Directors records / Genealogical Society of Queensland. State Library holds Queensland cemetery records series nos. 109-110; 115-140; 146-159. This index covers dates 1938 to 1999 – various dates.
- Metropolitan Funeral and Cremation Services members' receipt book 1953-1972 / Metropolitan Funeral and Cremation Services (Brisbane, Qld).
Tucker and Nankivell Funeral Director's
- Tucker and Nankivell Funeral Director's records index. 1925-1983 (Rockhampton) / Genealogical Society of Queensland. In book form. State Library holds Queensland cemetery records series nos. 111-114
T. T. Cornes Funeral Director
- Queensland cemetery records series. No. 102, T. T. Cornes Funeral Director's records index (1929) 1965-1982. (Mt Morgan Qld) / Genealogical Society of Queensland
General CD ROM Index
- Funeral directors, indexes multi volumed CD ROM index for Queensland. 6 CD-ROMs. The set includes Brisbane funeral directors’ indexes, including Metropolitan Funerals, Cannon and Cripps, and Alex Gow. In addition, there are regional Queensland indexes for Beaudesert, Beenleigh, Mt Morgan, and Rockhampton.
Photographs
John Oxley Library collections illustrate the types of hearses and premises of the undertakers of Brisbane. The photographic records of the undertakers demonstrate the social trends of the era, showing the kind of processions and vehicles considered necessary for a proper funeral.
- Photographs of hearses, Brisbane, Qld. State Library of Queensland
- Photographs of funerals, Brisbane
- 29789, John Hislop Funeral Hearses and Premises Photographs, 1890-1960. 36 images available online.
Hislop's custom built, motorised funeral hearse with glass panels and draped curtains, Brisbane, 1926.
First and foremost, the undertaker was a creator of social record. These records held at State Library allow researchers to appreciate the standing of the deceased in the community, the social protocols of the day and the evolving face of the profession over time.
Further reading
- A family undertaking : Alex Gow Funerals by Carolyn Nolan
- Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts : A History of Burial / Colman Penny. Available online.
- Encyclopedia of death and the human experience. Edited by Clifton D Bryant and Dennis L Peck. Available online.
- Commemorating the dead : texts and artifacts in context : studies of Roman, Jewish, and Christian burials / edited by Laurie Brink and Deborah Green ; with an introduction by Richard Saller. Available online.
- Diverse beliefs : funerary customs and mourning rituals in the Chinese community in North Queensland. Video
- ‘Come down in the world?’ Assessing social status from a nineteenth century burial in Far North Queensland / Bryce Barker; Celeste Jordan
This paper outlines the exhumation of the grave of Jane Ann Owen situated on Low Island, a sandy coral cay 15 km northeast of Port Douglas in Far North Queensland. It examines the remote burial in the context of assessing social status from a nineteenth century burial. Is part of Queensland archaeological research, 2026-01, Vol.29.
More information
Dearly Departed: death in life exhibition
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