Rev. Charles Kean

[Chris Scott]

I thought this extract might be of interest:

Pensacola Journal
3 February 1907

At the YMCA this afternoon and at the First Baptist Church tonight, the Rev. Chas. F. Kean will speak on "Life in the Slums of London."
Rev. Charles Frederick Kean is a missionary in the East End of London, in the slums of the largest city in the world, a man whose father and whose great grandfather spent their lives preaching to and teaching the criminals, the outcasts and the lowly in the wastes of the great city.

In his lecture Rev. Mr. Kean deals with that part of London made memorable by Dickens. He describes graphically the location in which Jack the Ripper murdered seven of his nine victims and the funeral services of the unhappy women, two of whom had at one time been members of his Sunday school.

[aspallek]

I will attempt to find more on Kean a bit later but this raises an interesting point. Let me first say that I suspect Kean's claims to be a bit of boastful self-promotion.

Would the victims have had actual "funeral services" as we know them today, i.e. a special worship service in a church prior to interment? I have done a fair amount of reading on funerary and burial practices in the Victorian period and it seems as if an actual "funeral service" was reserved for the wealthy and/or influential. Admiral Lord Nelson comes to mind as an example, whose funeral service was held in St. Paul's. But I believe poor folk like the Ripper victims would have probably had only the rite of committal spoken over their graves. This is the "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" bit that we clergy say as we commit the remains to the earth. The rite is relatively brief and normally takes me less than 10 minutes to complete. I think it is relatively unchanged, as the rite I use is based upon the Anglican BCP. I should say at this point that on those rare occasions where no "funeral service" is held or when the funeral service precedes the committal but a lengthy period of time (e.g., several days), I do sometimes elaborate and lengthen the actual rite of committal.

It is a bit confusing as "The Rite of Christian Burial" actually refers to the whole event and not merely the committal. Traditionally, the Rite consists of three parts: a brief devotional time with the family at the mortuary prior to the processional to the church (this has now often been transfered to a short meeting with family at church before the funeral service), the public worship ("funeral") service at the church, and the committal at the cemetery.

What I am wondering is whether or not the victims had actual church funeral services. They were not wealthy enough to merit them, to be sure, but did the notoriety of the later victims precipitate such an event? News accounts make no mention of it, as I recall, so I rather doubt it. I suppose the survivors had to settle for the brief Rite of Committal at the cemeteries.