MBE FOR HELEN
A BUSINESSWOMAN who runs funeral company which has a base in Ashbourne says she is getting over the shock of having been made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list.
Helen Wathall is managing director of funeral directors G Wathall and Son Ltd, which has a branch in Union Street and has received the honour for services to business and the community in Derbyshire.
The 52-year-old has led the firm for more than 30 years, overseeing around 1,000 funerals a year, and in 2002 she became the first woman to be elected as President to the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF).
Ms Wathall was also recently appointed to the Board of Golden Charter, the UK’S leading provider of funeral plans in the UK, being one of three independent funeral directors and the first female director on the Board.
In 2014, under her leadership, the company decided to extend its services into bereavement support, and launched its first Dandelions Bereavement Support Group.
Dandelions provides a social environment and emotional support for families and the local community.
The company, which is run from its base in Macklin Street, Derby, also works closely with the Derby-based Laura Centre, helping those dealing with child bereavement.
Ms Wathall said: “I was in total shock when the letter arrived to tell me that I had been nominated for an MBE.
“Over the generations, the Wathall family has always been part of the local community – whether that is leading Derby’s war effort in the 1940s to being an active member of the local business community to action improvements in St Peters Quarter.
“I am therefore immensely honoured to be recognised in this way – particularly as it comes at the close of Wathall’s 160th anniversary year.”
Her family’s business established in 1858, and now also has branches in Borrowash and Alvaston.
Ms Wathall, of Duffield, is the fifth generation of the family to run the business.
However, when she was growing up she had her heart set on an entirely different career.
She wanted to be a farm business manager - and had gone to agricultural college to study but then her father Bill asked her if she was interested in joining the family business.
A decade after she joined, Helen’s father died at the age of just 62, which thrust Helen, who at the time was just 29 years-old, into the role of boss of G Wathall and Son.
Not only did she have a responsibility to the staff, she also had the weight of the firm’s history on her shoulders.
“It was such a difficult time,” said Helen. “On the Friday I was just an employee of the company – by the following week I had the responsibility of running it. It was a lot of pressure.”
Ms Wathall was also made the chairman of the St Peters Quarter Business Improvement District board in 2017.
As for the future of Wathall’s, the sixth generation of the family has already started work at the firm. Helen has three children– Bec, Charlotte and Hugo.
Bec is Helen’s PA and Charlotte is a funeral arranger at the company.
Helen said: “I think the business has a good future. Our history certainly helps us.
“In my 33 years in the business I have seen funerals change a great deal - and I’m sure they will in the future.
“As a business, we will always make sure that we adapt to those changes.”
I am immensely honoured to be recognised in this way – at the close of Wathall’s 160th anniversary