The Individual Funeral Company

Owner / Funeral Director

Lucy Coulbert is the one woman powerhouse behind The Individual Funeral Company (TIFC) who is on a mission to improve funeral provision in the UK.

Winner of the ‘Low Cost Funeral Provider of the Year’ in the 2016 Good Funeral Awards with her second funeral company, Coulbert Family Funerals, (see below), joint runner up in the ‘Modern Funeral Director of the Year’ with TIFC the same year, and joint winner of ‘The Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death’ in her own right the following year, Lucy was also named ‘Inspirational Woman of the Year’ in the Thames Valley Venus Awards – a plethora of awards that are rightly deserved by a thoroughly decent human being.

Oxford based The Individual Funeral Company is Lucy’s creation, she owns it, runs it and is the person who will care for you and your family from the moment you first pick up the phone (no matter what time of day or night that might be) and throughout the days that follow. She is completely dedicated to ensuring that every client she works with gets exactly the funeral they want and need, focusing on bespoke, personal service throughout.

Warm, friendly and utterly normal, Lucy is the kind of person you instantly take a liking to. There’s nothing hidden, no faux sympathy or pretentiousness about her, just a genuine humanity and passion for getting it right for you. She doesn’t get in your way, nor does she try and impose anything on you. She meets you right where you are, unafraid and unflinching even with the most difficult or distressing of circumstances or the most complicated requirements. She’s genuinely there to serve every client who walks through the door, no matter who they are, and she gives the same dedication, support and care to each family she encounters.

The Individual Funeral Company opened in September 2013 – a culmination of years of planning and determination, and a massive leap of faith, as Lucy explains; “When I opened the business, I had less than a thousand pounds left in the bank, and a matter of weeks to find the money to pay the next quarter’s rent. But I knew I had to do it.”

Through a combination of sheer nerve, absolute belief in what she was doing and working evenings and weekends at a second job for two years, Lucy held on through the early quiet days, and gradually the unique quality of the service she provided began to pay off. Word began to spread about the small funeral director business that provided completely bespoke service at a very reasonable cost, and eventually Lucy was able to leave her second job to concentrate fully on funerals.

This didn’t mean that she slowed down, far from it. In fact in July 2015, she started a sister company to run alongside The Individual Funeral Company – Coulbert Family Funerals, a not for profit company set up specifically to help families who are applying to the Department of Work and Pensions for financial assistance with the costs of a funeral.

The two companies work hand in hand with each other, with The Individual Funeral Company donating £100 from each funeral carried out to Coulbert Family Funerals to help fund the costs of running a not for profit organisation. Coulbert Family Funerals is named after Lucy’s grandfather, an inspirational figure in her life, and it is a rare thing in the world of funerals – often, large companies aren’t interested in helping people apply for a Social Fund Funeral Payment. Alongside TIFC and Coulbert Family Funerals,  Lucy also offers set price low cost simple funerals via Oxford Undertakers. By separating out her different offerings it is easier for clients to achieve the kind of funeral they need.

Under the Coulbert Family Funerals umbrella, Lucy  assists with advice on completing  the application form as well as working tirelessly on the family’s behalf chasing the DWP to get a response. She sees no reason why people in receipt of a payment from the Social Fund shouldn’t receive the same care and support as every other family. “We set out to genuinely help people who otherwise may not have been able to arrange the funeral themselves or would have been left with crippling debt. We are certain we can help anyone applying to the Department of Works & Pensions arrange a beautiful funeral and give your loved one the send off you can be proud of,” she says.

This dedication to helping families who struggle to find the money for funeral costs led to Lucy being invited to give evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee. Appearing alongside a representative from the National Association of Funeral Directors, Lucy spoke passionately about her frustration with the existing system that so often leaves families waiting for weeks not knowing whether they will receive any assistance, nor how much. Her appearance led to an invitation to meet Baroness Altmann,  the former Minister of State and a leading pensions expert and political campaigner to share her thoughts.

As a result of her contribution at the Select Committee and the subsequent media interest, Lucy continued to be sought out for her opinion on the Social Fund Funeral Payment, and she was invited to be part of the DWP working group seeking ways to improve the system. She was slightly bemused by this. “I don’t know how this happened,” she said at the time, “Why am I the only person speaking up?” It’s probably because Lucy is unlike many other funeral directors. She’s straight talking, fearless and take-it-or-leave-it honest. She’s also incredibly bright and very funny.

Her route to owning her own business and becoming the champion of struggling bereaved families is a tale of determination and dogged persistence. The daughter of a mortuary manager, Lucy knew she wanted to be involved with funerals from an early age, but as a ‘people person’ she didn’t want to follow her mum into a career behind the mortuary doors.

At the age of 19, Lucy went to work for Co-operative Funeralcare and learned the basics of how funerals worked. She also met some amazing people who remain admired friends to this day, some even attending the opening of her business in 2013.

After a few years, Lucy made contact with Revd. Paul Sinclair of Motorcycle Funerals, the UK’s first motorcycle hearse service. She wanted to know if he’d offer a franchise to her, but instead was offered a job with him, and she spent the next four years driving up and down the country as one of his hearse riders.

It was a great opportunity, visiting different funeral director’s premises every day, and Lucy rapidly realised she was getting insight into both how not to do funerals, and how to do funerals exceptionally well. Everything was filed away in the back of her mind, and when she left Motorcycle Funerals for a brief tenure at another national chain of funeral directors, she spent most of her time working on her business plan for her own business.

The next couple of years were spent doing work wherever she could to keep the wolf from the door, all the time trying to get her business off the ground. Undeterred by setbacks (her bank had never given a loan to a startup funeral director before, and she missed the chance to rent the building she first identified), eventually, after driving around the area looking for somewhere suitable, Lucy saw the premises in Rose Hill, and The Individual Funeral Company had found a home.

Starting a new funeral director business is a risky thing, but Lucy held her nerve through the first months. “Social media save my a**e,” she says. “I didn’t have any money for advertising or marketing, but Facebook and Twitter were a way of letting people know I was here.”

The first funeral for The Individual Funeral Company came as a result of The Natural Death Centre recommending a family contact Lucy. The family lived miles away, and the funeral was in London – a baptism of fire that Lucy took in her stride, and since then things have gone from strength to strength. Ten years on, Lucy is a recognised and respected funeral director, both in the area where she works and among her peers.

Every funeral that TIFC carries out is unique. This is something that Lucy feels absolutely passionately about, for her, every client is in charge, they are the boss, and she sees her role as offering information and ideas to help each client be as creative as they want to be to have the funeral they want.

She is incredibly thorough in how she does this, starting with a comprehensive email to each client who approaches her, outlining all the information they might need, and offering options. Every client has a tailor made response to the conversation they have just had, including Lucy pointing out areas where they might want to take control or be involved in. Out of the initial conversations and email exchanges, often small comments can spark ideas of how to make the funeral unique for that person, and Lucy will work with each client to develop tases ideas and make them happen. She is more than capable of organising a high profile, meticulously planned military style funeral if this is what you want – or equally at home helping you hold a completely informal ceremony in a pub garden, and with her calm, easy ‘no dramas’ approach she will empower you to do as much of the funeral yourself as you feel able to.

Whether organising a ceremony in the Ashmolean Museum (the first and only time that a coffin has been allowed to be the centrepiece of a funeral in the museum) or carrying out a direct cremation with nobody attending, you can be certain that Lucy will be completely herself, and that her attention, respect for the person who has died and determination to get everything right will be exactly the same. She’s completely honest and transparent and ethical, just exactly the sort of person you want to help you through the myriad of decisions involved in a funeral.

Her premises are bright and welcoming. We visited on a Saturday – you can do this by appointment if you want – and we walked past the closed shutters of the branch of Dignity three doors away as we approached. This seemed somehow symbolic. Since The Individual Funeral Company opened, the number of people using the Dignity branch steadily diminished. The personal service that Lucy offers and her clear, transparent and fair pricing contrast completely with the central diary, central mortuary and lack of any mention of prices on the website that Dignity offer. “I encourage clients who are choosing a funeral director to pop up the road and ask for a quote”, says Lucy. “They’re usually back here within three minutes.”

The large windows and glass door spill daylight into the reception area, and a glimpse of Lucy’s desk can be seen at the rear of the building. It’s usually piled high with work related stuff. The window to the right of the door is used for displays – often including a coffin of some kind. When we visited, a lovely white woollen coffin was in the window with draped gold material providing a backdrop and pots of colourful anemones and grass providing a splash of colour.

On the right of the reception area is the arranging room, where a large black and white canvas portrait of Queen Elizabeth II smiles down. Furnished simply with a table and chairs, this room offers a space where you can talk in private about funeral arrangements. A curtained window between this room and the one behind allows daylight to filter into the modern, quiet room where you can spend time with the person who has died if you want to do so.

Lucy doesn’t believe in embalming unless it is absolutely necessary, so she encourages people to come and spend time sooner rather than later. Your relative will be laid on a wheeled bier on tray covered with a crisp white sheet, looking as if they are laid in a bed, and you can spend as much time with them as you want to.

At the rear of the building, Lucy has a secure, locked temperature controlled cold room where she can look after several people at the same time. This ensures that all the space within the building is available for families to use, the best use of a small premises we’ve seen. Behind Lucy’s desk is a little kitchen area where she makes very good coffee, and a couple of cages alongside her workspace indicate the presence of Bunny and Joplin, her two beloved dogs, who are often beside her when she’s at work.

When it comes to the day of the funeral, Lucy will meticulously prepare for the day with the team of staff she brings in to help. There will have been copious timeline emails for all the key people involved, including the bearers, carriage master and the person leading the ceremony. This continues on  the day with verbal briefings and final discussions with the minister or celebrant before the ceremony begins. Lucy sees her role as making sure that everyone is in the right place at the right time, supporting the family but in an unobtrusive way – she tells clients that her job on the day is to be almost invisible until they need her, then when they look up they should be able to find her instantly.

Every funeral that she carries out is special, but for Lucy probably the most important one that she has been involved with was for her dear friend and mentor Paul, the ‘Faster Pastor’ minister who created Motorcycle Funerals, who died in April 2019 aged just 53.

Setting her own grief aside, Lucy worked with Marian, Paul’s wife, to create the most incredible funeral, taking Paul’s coffin around Donington race track the evening beforehand at speeds of over 100 miles an hour on one of  his own motorcycle hearses,  and then leading the procession of all the Motorcycle Funerals sidecar hearses and dozens of riders of motorbikes the following day to the church for his funeral ceremony, and then on to the little  churchyard for his burial. It was an extraordinary spectacle, meticulously planned and executed by Paul’s protégée, the first rider he employed full time, and the best funeral director he knew.