Firm keeping it in the family

A Sandy funeral directors is celebrating 115 years serving the community.

In February 1903, Alfred Seamer, after working for the Withey family for 23 years, took on their family funeral and joinery business.

He was followed by sons George and Harry who registered it as G & H Seamer.

Jim Seamer snr came into the business when his brother Harry passed away. His son James Seamer (also known as Jim) was 16 when he started working with the family business and took over from his father in 1976.

To this day Jim Seamer has been leading funerals and taking on the family role of caring for members of the local community in one of their toughest times.

In 2006 Jim’s step-son, Stephen Spavins joined the family business but sadly died in an aviation accident in 2014.

This left Jim not only with the pain of losing his step-son but the worry of who will take on the family business.

In 2015 Stephen’s son Tom followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

And the firm continues to grow. This year the firm updated its fleet and is now the proud owners of a matching set of Mercedes E213 classic style hearse and limousine.

Also, at the start of this year Stephen’s second son Matthew started helping out part time at the family business, filling in were he is needed and bearing on funerals.

He has started to learn the trade and has hopes of getting more involved in the future. The future for G & H Seamer is looking very positive and with Stephen having two more children, the family hopes to keep the Seamer name above the business for many more years to come.