Western Morning News (Saturday)
Honour to conduct Capt Tom’s funeral
Lee Trewhela meets the Cornish-born celebrant who officiated
Lucy Silous is used to conducting funerals – the celebrant has conducted around 3,000. But she admits it threw her a little bit when she was asked to lead the funeral of national hero Captain Sir Tom Moore.
Lucy, who grew up in Cornwall, said the only time she got a tinge of nerves was when she realised the live BBC broadcast was probably being watched by the Queen and Prime Minister.
The former actress says her work as a celebrant and the fact she was chosen to conduct such a high-profile funeral is all down to Cornwall.
She said: “I wouldn’t have been able to go to drama school if it wasn’t for Cornwall County Council, as you could get a discretionary grant then. Cornwall were only offering two that year and I had to audition in Truro. Luckily I was chosen as one of those who got the grant. It was amazing.
“If I hadn’t that experience, I wouldn’t be able to do the job I do, so everything has been leading to this point from Cornwall.”
Captain Sir Tom Moore’s funeral took place at Bedford Crematorium in February. The 100-year-old war veteran raised tens of millions of pounds for the NHS during the first Covid lockdown and rapidly became a much-loved figure in British life during the pandemic.
Lucy says: “It was a really huge honour. It’s lovely to have the kudos of conducting the service for someone who is a national treasure, but all my services are equally important. I hope I can make a difference for all the families involved.”
How did she get chosen for such a prestigious occasion?
“I got a phone call one day from a funeral directors I work with who asked, ‘How do you fancy doing Captain Tom’s funeral?’ It escalated from there as initially it was going to be a private family affair, and then the BBC were involved.
“They were just going to film the military parts at the beginning and the end. The next thing I know, I get a phone call the day before asking if I could get to Marston Moretaine, where his house is, for 8am for an interview for breakfast television.
“The deal was I would go and do that, then go to the crematorium and the BBC would film the service and edit it to be shown later. I literally found out 15 minutes before the service began that they decided to go live with the whole funeral.
“It threw me a little bit. Luckily because of my experience with funerals, that side of it was fine and because I’d been used to doing television that side of it was fine as well.”
She added: “It was a huge honour and ultimately you can only be yourself. I didn’t think I felt pressure because of who he was, but I expected the family to be quite guarded because of some of the negative press coverage and trolling. But the moment we had a Zoom meeting and the moment I met them, we got on and I told them what I thought the service should be.
“He was so proud of his military past and that was so much a part of who he was, but he was also equally proud of his family. I felt it had to really honour both.
“I told them you’ve been very kind to lend him to the nation and to the world, so we’ve got to do something to make everyone feel they’re part of it, but it’s very important that the service in the middle was very much a family goodbye for them.
“Luckily they were in agreement. If they weren’t, I would have done whatever they wanted.”
Surely, she must have been affected by the sense of occasion?
“Weirdly, I wasn’t nervous at all when it came to it. When it first started, I was a bit ‘oh, this is going out live and the Queen and Boris will probably be watching – I should have gone over my lines a bit better’ but within two minutes I did what I always do.
“It was a really, really big honour – what nice kudos that I was chosen. They probably could have asked anyone in the country to come and do it.
“It also made me think about all the other people I do services for – it’s been such a difficult time when they’ve only been allowed 10 people in there.”