OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
www.oldplymouth.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: February 27, 2021
Webpage updated: February 27, 2021

        

WHO WAS WHO IN OLD PLYMOUTH

WILLIAM EARL (1920-2004)

The founder of Messrs Earl of Plymouth, undertakers, was Mr William Earl  He was born in Plymouth on May 4th 1920, one of five children.

He started wheeling and dealing at a very young age by selling pigeons to his schoolmates.   He knew the pigeons would fly back home and he could sell them all over again.

His funeral business grew out of a love of cars.  As a child he used to help out at Dyers Garage at Saint Budeaux.  After he was invalided out of the Royal Corps of Signals during the Second World War, he started to run his own taxi business.  He had a lucky escape when a German bomb hit an air raid shelter: he was one of only three people who survived the attack. 

'Bill' Earl used to hire hearses out to undertakers, who were often builders normally, but he decided it would be much better to operate them himself.  He travelled widely picking up tips on how to run a successful undertaking enterprise, during which time he attended the San Francisco College of Mortuary Science and became the first officially qualified embalmer in Devon and Cornwall.  He even attended funerals while on holiday to see how the different nationalities did things.

Having adopted the grand title of 'Earl of Plymouth', his first funeral parlour was in Keyham, after which he moved to Albert Road and finally to Milehouse, opposite the old main entrance to Central Park.

On Sunday October 17th 2004 William Earl deliberately took an overdose of sleeping tablets with a cup of tea.  He had been very ill for a decade and was starting to suffer from Alzheimer's Disease.  He was taken to Derriford Hospital but as he did not regain consciousness, his life-support system was turned off on the following day.

He left a widow, Mrs Carole Barkell, a son, Christopher, a daughter, Anita, and a step-son, Jonathan.