Some Related-ish Q's

[3a-berkeley.livejournal.com]

Hi, sorry if this is not allowed, but I am writing a story inspired by Jeeves and Bertie and I'm having trouble finding some information I could really use, and I thought maybe people here might know or know in which direction to point me. I was wondering about laundry-presumably that was part of Jeeves' job or did he send it out anywhere to be cleaned? Also, what were funeral practices like in 1930s Britain? Thanks so much!

Comments

[derien.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Jeeves would have sent the laundry out to be done. Far as I can tell laundry was cheap and a small flat would not support washing space.

Funeral practices probably still tended toward the traditional laying out in the house of the family, but I'm not really sure. (I do know that our modern practices of morticians is fairly new. Oddly my Eor and I were just discussing that a short while ago this evening - the fact that there's a new push back to tradition.)

[3a-berkeley.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[derien.livejournal.com]

sorry I was in a bit of a hurry last night - to expand a little, my conversation with Eor over this had to do with it being a good idea to know what to do with bodies because a rather gruesome event happened when a cousin of mine was asked to build a casket for someone who died unexpectedly. And people don't know how to handle bodies these days.

But when we started talking about your question, I did say I thought smaller living spaces in cities were what gave rise to having the body laid out someplace else besides in the home, and it seems I was on the right track by what I found here:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3402200154.html

J. J. Farrell, in Inventing the American Way of Death, 1830–1920 (1980), describes common funeral-related practices that prevailed through the mid-to-late 1800s among people of European descent. Most people died at home during this period, and funerals and burials were handled by the immediate family and neighbors. After the death, women in the family would wash, dress, and prepare the body for burial. Men were responsible for making the plain wood coffin or securing it from the local carpenter. Male survivors dug the grave, and in some cases carved the grave stone. The wake was typically held at home, followed by a committal service at grave-side.

As industrialization flourished, American cities grew more crowded, and living spaces became smaller. When death occurred, many families did not have the physical space for a wake in the home. D. C. Sloane (1991) cites three other reasons for the expanding roles of undertakers in the late nineteenth century: (1) the rise in popularity of embalming; (2) a longer distance from the home to the cemetery necessitated someone to organize the procession; and (3) families were concerned about ensuring that all the formalities were followed. The National Funeral Directors Association was established in 1882. The group decided to use the term funeral directors, rather than undertakers, in an effort to portray a more professional image. During the twentieth century, the role of the funeral director continued to expand into areas previously held by the family and the clergy.

[3a-berkeley.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. Thanks a bunch! I have been wondering if a funeral would have been held a month after death, to allow relations overseas time to attend?

[derien.livejournal.com]

I don't think that would have been the usual way to do it. We think nothing these days of embalming and sticking people in a cooler and all that, but keeping someone on ice costs a lot - even these days in most places there are not the resources for that. (My Mom died in Korea last March and they were charging me $67 every day her body was in the freezer drawer.)

Now, they did reinvent embalming during the American Civil War so they could ship bodies home, so it's not impossible. A very rich family who had very good reason to want a particular person at the funeral might wait, but I think most people just emotionally don't like to wait to get a funeral out of the way.

Far as I know there was a usual laying out of three days to give them a little time to wake up if they were just in a coma, but if it were cold and everyone was pressed for time I suppose they might leave it until the weekend.

In New England a century ago when the ground was frozen in midwinter they would stack the coffins in a crypt to inter when the ground thawed, but the services and gathering were held early on and the interment was only attended by the gravedigger and maybe a few other interested parties, not an event.

[3a-berkeley.livejournal.com]

Okay, yeah, this guy was definitely dead. He was pretty much gutted in his bedroom. The family is extremely wealthy-some extended members are titled and his only other sibling is a sister who lives in Australia.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I would imagine there would be a little delay for the police, then. They might desire the body to remain in the morgue while they investigate. Then you get into procedurals of the time, which I don't really know about. It could be possible that the body might not be released until they felt they had gathered all the information they could from it, but at that time I'm not sure how much they would assume they could get. I really don't know. I would imagine that a week or so might be sufficient. I haven't even read a lot of Agatha Cristie.

[3a-berkeley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the police are investigating. They're the ones who told the valet about the crime. I imagine a week at most, the flat would be an active crime scene. I've read about Victorian era crime solving from Patricia Cornwall, and I think the newest bit of forensics in the interwar period (nibeteen teens-50s-roughly between WWI&WWII), was fingerprinting, which was all done manually, of course.

[storyfan.livejournal.com]

I agree the laundry probably would have been sent out. Also, though we don't see one, many people in those days had a woman in to "do the rough," or the heavy cleaning. I certainly can't see Jeeves spoiling his immaculate suit by cleaning on his hands and knees, but I can see him gently bossing a charwoman.

If I let this flight of fancy take me further, perhaps the charwoman would have taken the laundry with her, doing it with Jeeves' strict instructions in mind. Perhaps the charwoman would fall in love with Jeeves and his hoity toity ways, and Bertie would have to get Jeeves out of the soup...

[derien.livejournal.com]

Hee! I love when another story idea comes from conversation. ;D

[3a-berkeley.livejournal.com]

^_^

[3a-berkeley.livejournal.com]

Thanks and lol that sounds like a cute story.