WA Truelove & Son Ltd recently marked the retirement of a key member of staff, our embalmer Chrys Impett, who retired on the 12th October 2018 after spending an incredible 51 years working for our firm. Despite Chrys not wanting to make a fuss, we were delighted to hold a retirement party for him on the day of his retirement at The Oaks Golf Club in Carshalton
Truelove’s Managing Director, Simon Truelove, gave a speech at the event reflecting on Chrys’s life and his more than half a century working at our independent family funeral firm. He was also very pleased to present Chrys with a leaving gift.
Chrys Impett was born in Columbo, the capital city of what was then Ceylon, but is now Sri Lanka, in 1948. From a young age Chrys wanted to be an embalmer so, as a teenager, he would leave school on a Friday evening and go to his local funeral directors to help prepare the deceased that arrived over the weekend. In Sri Lanka, it is so hot that the deceased have to be embalmed within two hours of death, so he was usually very busy. In fact, he was generally so busy that he would sleep on a sofa there, only leaving when it was time for school again on a Monday morning.
He came to England to train as an embalmer in 1967, when he was just eighteen years old. He had written to an English mortician, whose name he found in the English newspapers that he would read at the British Council in Columbo. The mortician had replied to him, giving him the name and address of the Lear School of Embalming for him to apply to. At the time, Lear’s was based on Truelove’s premises, as we had opened a purpose-built embalming theatre at our Head Office on Carshalton Road in Sutton in 1950. In fact, many of the UK’s and Europe’s first embalmers were trained on Truelove’s premises. Therefore, when Lear’s accepted Chrys as a trainee embalmer, he started work at Truelove’s on the 21st January 1967, over 51 years ago, only leaving Truelove’s for nine months to work at another company in order to obtain his work permit. His instructor for three years all that time was Alan Sinclair, who we are delighted to say was able to join us at Chrys’s retirement party, together with his wife Maureen.
Chrys finished his training in February 1971, nearly 48 years ago, at which point our then General Manager and his assistant asked Chrys to stay on at the company. He agreed, starting work on Valentine’s Day 1971. Chrys was due to retire five years ago, but very kindly stayed on to help out the firm. After celebrating his seventieth birthday earlier this year he decided that now was the time to retire. He has bought a house in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, and is moving there to discover what the next chapter of his life will bring.
During his speech, Simon Truelove said:
“I cannot let this remarkable event pass without acknowledging what Chrys has done for the company over the years.”
“In his heyday, I would say that Chrys was one of the finest embalmers in the country. He also had a prodigious workload, often working late into the night and at weekends, as he never liked to work with anyone else. He has always taken great pride in being able to show his respect for the deceased by, in his own words, ‘making them look nice’. He considers it to be a privilege.”
“Chrys has always been a very loyal member of staff. He even named his eldest son after my father, Ray, of whom Chrys was very fond.”
“Chrys, may I thank you on behalf of the family and the company for all you have done for us over the years. It has been a great pleasure to know you.”
For more information about WA Truelove & Son Ltd and all our services, please visit https://www.watltd.co.uk/ or call us on 020 8642 8211.
