I read with great interest the letters on burial versus cremation.

Cremation was forbidden by the Catholic Church because of the doctrine on the resurrection of the physical body.

Great Britain is an island nation; in 1902 (and 1952) the Cremation Act was established thanks to the efforts of Sir Henry Thompson, Queen Victoria’s surgeon. It was in 1873 at the Great Exhibition in Vienna that this physician saw a model of an experimental “furnace” created by two Italian scientists.

The headquarters of the International Cremation Federation is in London; they seek to promote cremation as a universal practice. Most Asians prefer cremation though the Chinese are for burial in the soil. Modern society has become “nomadic” by following the job trail; ash urns can travel along! I am all for recycling and like to have my ashes fertilise a sunflower; its seeds will nourish vegetarian homo sapiens and song birds.