Military and Veteran funeral services with Lady Funeral Director across Somerset and Devom
Offering respectful military & veteran funeral services
We create bespoke burial or cremation funerals tailored to honour our military and veterans or police, prison and fire officers
Offering dedicated funerals for veterans, and serving armed forces officers
In the UK a military funeral takes place when a serving member the British Armed Forces (Royal Navy, Army, Royal Marines or the Royal Air Force) has died in active service, and in Somerset and Devon we are proud to have some local bases for our armed forces. In addition when a veteran dies, they are entitled and allowed to have the ensign of the service that they served in, draped on their coffin as a mark of honour and respect.
At Amanda-Louise Funeral Services, we believe the people who have served for our country should, if they wish, be given the military, service and etiquette traditions they deserve with as much ease as possible. This also includes public service officers such as police, prison and fire officers too.
A send off that's just right, whether formal or laid back, our fresh approach to funerals we make it easy to have the funeral you deserve. Trust us our logistical planning ensures every little detail is considered.
More Services We Offer
Can't find what you are looking for?
Whether you want to talk through our funeral services or need help choosing from our range of funeral products. Get in touch with us today.
Funerals for Military & Veterans With Honours
Contact Amanda-Louise today for a personalised quotation
PERSONAL MESSAGE TO YOU FROM AMANDA-LOUISE
“I built my independent family run funeral business on kindness and experience with our desire to provide you with every aspect for you to arrange a funeral that reflects how you wish to say goodbye. So, I offer choice,support and value and am not rigid in our approach, so you only pay for what you want and need.Not all funerals are the same and no two funeral directors are the same either. Some funeral directors charge additionally for many aspects of the funeral elements. We care about the living and the departed and know how daunting it can be to arrange a funeral. So, with my heartfelt offering, below is my 10 point gift to support you in your important life decisions, warmly Amanda-Louise”
1. Our Pledge – your loved one remains in our local facilities
2. Our Compliments No Charge (if desired) - Collecting clothing in the local area, our flower placed on coffin if desired as sentimental touch, and delivery of ashes in the local area
3. 'Our Compliments No Charge - A Funeral Notice' online service
4. The ability - for Amanda-Louise Funeral Director to personally come out to your home locally to discuss arrangements in detail
5. Our Compliments No Charge - Choice is very important to us, so you have the option for your gentle funeral ceremony to be conducted by Amanda-Louise (celebrant capacity - subject to availability)
6. Our Pledge Our Heart is Local – we prefer to use only local crematoriums or cemeteries (and not take you out of our region)
7. Our Compliments No Charge - We believe that arranging a meaningful funeral can be a healing experience to support your grief journey. Amanda-Louise will personally support you and guide you through the practical aspects and offer to help you create a fitting ceremony and celebration of life. Our in-house trained bereavement support for adults and children, and open invitations to join us for our bereavement coffee sessions after the funeral enabling a comfortable space and shared experiences
8. Our Partnerships - Access to specialist bereavement counselling for those needing therapeutic structured support
9. Our Pledge for the Planet – we dedicate towards planting a tree in memory of your loved one and our unique way to benefit our environment for future generations by offering a variety of eco-friendly funeral procedures, arrangements, and products too
10. Our Pledge to Ease the Burden – we offer to provide everything you may want or need for a funeral, memorial or celebration of life under our one roof helping to remove some of the stress from your shoulders. From floristry, vehicles, orders of service and ceremony accessories, catering to venue provision and memorabilia and keepsakes
Funerals designed and created for Military & Veterans
If you are looking for a bespoke funeral designed to honour someone within the serving military, or a veteran, or perhaps a police officer, fire person or prison officer for example, with the honours they are entitled to, then Amanda-Louise Funeral Services is here to provide your prefect funeral. We’ll listen to your ideas, offering our suggestions if required, then together we’ll create a detailed plan.
We know that a death has a profound effect on the relatives but also on their colleagues and the organisation they worked for in the line of duty. So having consulted a military serving officer we have devised a tailored personalised funeral service that may appeal to serving or ex-serving forces personnel that also includes if required:
- Union Flag coffin pall drape or a regimental drape or constabulary/brigade flag
- Assistance to arrange the attendance of a standard bearer, or bearer party
- Coordinated support to have vehicular escort
- Recorded last post for act of remembrance or a bugler for the act of remembrance
- Assistance to arrange Guard of Honour
- Support with specific faith to be respected
- Hats or medals to be placed on the coffin
- Liaison with personnel to give spoken tribute during the funeral ceremony
- Arrangement of a poppy wreath from the service
The Breakdown of Costs
Transparency is ever so important to us at Amanda-Louise Funeral Services, especially when it comes to pricing. To find out how much you could expect to spend to achieve the funeral that’s right for you see below, putting you in control of how you spend your money. We will provide you with a personalised quotation once we have spoken for your consideration.
More services we offer
What to expect from us
The enduring strength of women
We care for you and your family
As your Lady Funeral Directors, Amanda-Louise can meet you in the comfort of your own home, or in our peaceful office, or via video call if you'd prefer. We will never tell you how 'things should be done', or rush you, but support you to understand and consider your choices, so that you can decide what is right for you and your family and friends.
We will listen to you, and can help you plan a funeral ceremony. We'll respect your personal beliefs, values and culture and ensure your requirements, and those of the person that has died, are reflected in the funeral. You may prefer a religious funeral, a more secular service or might want to include a number of different religious and spiritual perspectives within the same service.
We can help you to reflect on the life of the person who has died and enable you to create some positive memories to support you at a time when people can often feel sad and alone. We can support you to have a farewell that you desire - so we will support you to understand the wide range of options such as visual, musical, floral, donations, readings/poems for example, as well as organising venue and/or hospitality for your after funeral wake or reception, if you wish.
Importantly, we will be flexible to your needs and wishes and give you our time to help put your ideas into action. You can take as much control as you like. We are able to support families from across Somerset or Devon, are not regionally restricted, we can help you create an event at a time and place that is best for you.
Amanda-Louise Funeral Director, can also personally deliver a heartfelt celebrant led service on your behalf should you wish, or we can recommend other talented professional ceremony leaders including religious ministers, celebrants and humanists.
We work hard to support the wellbeing of every family we support (adults and children).We can also provide a wealth of practical bereavement information for adults and children, and we'll ensure the funeral is meaningful for you, which helps in coming to terms with loss too.
We care for the person who has died
In our care you have trusted us to look after your loved one and we take enormous pride in treating people with respect and dignity. From the very moment the person who has died comes into our care, to the moment they leave, we will treat them with compassion, kindness and consideration. We see this as part of the cycle of life
We reach out and support people from 15 to 50+ miles away from us, as we safely transfer the deceased into our facilities. We'll care for the person entrusted into our funeral home with compassion and dignity, and treat everyone as guests in our home. Or we can assist if you prefer the deceased to remain at home or liaise with a repatriation company for deaths abroad.
We provide a comprehensive range of coffins in different materials, including coffin accessories to suit all tastes. This is a very personal choice, so we happily talk about them or can show you the differences.
We can provide the ability for family to spend time with their loved one, and to change clothing if this is important to you. Plus you can be involved in as little or as much of their care as you desire. We will gently prepare them for their funeral following your wishes including hairstyles or makeup, and whilst we do not routinely embalm we can provide this if you desire. We’ll take great care of any person effects, and give them to you ,or they will remain with the person Plus we can arrange for your items to be placed in the coffin if you wish.
We can even support you to keep your loved one at home right up until their funeral if you wish.
On the day of the funeral
We understand that attention to detail is really important, from considering the way people enter the service to carefully calculating the journey time.
We can provide our professional pallbearers to convey the coffin. We can help you bear the coffin if that's important to you. We can arrange special routes to the funeral if you wish, or alternative hearses and limousines.
We can arrange to collect family from railway station or airport if helpful.
Some families prefer not to hold the funeral ceremony at a crematorium chapel or in church, so we can support you to have a service in a chosen hotel, hall or alternative venue that is meaningful to you.
Amanda-Louise will be by your side giving you that reassuring presence ensuring everything is going to plan smoothly, and we leave when you are ready for us to go. We can also provide attendance cards so you know who has attended the funeral ceremony service.
After the funeral
We remain connected should you need us. If we collected donations, we will provide you with audit trail so you know they have been forwarded to the relevant people, organisation or charity. We'll collect ashes if that's helpful & deliver them to you. We can arrange for you to scatter them or preserve them if you wish.
We will have spoken to you about the arrangements of the funeral flowers and carried out those wishes. And if required, we can organise graves and headstones to be put in place at a suitable time after a burial or ashes placed.
And we welcome you to stay in touch. Often our clients pop in to talk about how life is treating them, or to attend one of our coffee afternoons as life can be isolating at times following the loss of a loved one. Our kettle is always on, likely biscuits too. Rest assured, we will never stop caring - here for you whenever you need us, wherever you are.
Do you need more help?
"We all felt totally safe opening our hearts to Amanda-Louise and were so impressed in the skills and empathy she has to understand how we all felt."
Funerals for Military & Veterans
Our frequently asked questions to guide you
What to Do When a Death Occurs at a Hospital or Hospice
A doctor will need to certify the death. This can be the person’s registered GP or the Doctor on duty, and they will issue the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD).
Once the Doctor has been to see the person, you will liaise with the bereavement team who will offer practical and emotional support. The person who has died will often be cared for in the mortuary at the hospital or hospice until a funeral director is appointed or arrangements made. If you appoint us as your funeral director, we will be able to call the hospital or hospice and make the necessary arrangements to bring the person who has died into our care once the death has been certified.
What To Do When a Death Occurs at a Nursing or Residential Home
A doctor will need to certify the death. This can be the person’s registered GP or the Doctor on duty. Once the Doctor has been to see the person, the nursing home may want us to collect them straight away, with your permission.
The nursing home will advise you where to collect the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD).
If the death was expected, the GP will provide a medical certificate showing the cause of death, which you will need to register the death.
Which is more expensive burial or cremation?
Typically, cremations are less expensive than a burial, but there isn’t much in it these days.
For burials, the cost will depend on whether it’s a new plot needed to be purchased, or an existing one that needs to have a stone removed in preparation, plus there is the burial cost on top. Having said that, cremation prices do vary with each crematoria provider, whether you want a funeral ceremony and for how long. Please do talk to us about your individual requirements as we always supply a quotation.
"Dedicated to giving you the funeral you deserve & want"
"With my vision on providing wrap-around-care from start to finish. Our team are here to help you with every aspect of planning and organising your funeral needs from the preparation of the body to events and memorial services, I will be with you every step of the way"