The Victorian Era

Death and Mourning in the Victorian Era

Article · Society & Daily Life · The Victorian Era, 1837–1901

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Death and mourning were the central features of the Victorian experience, and the period saw the development of an elaborate system of mourning customs, of mourning dress, of mourning jewellery, of mourning stationery, of mourning food, of mourning rituals, and of mourning architecture that has no parallel in modern British life. The death rate in England was 22 to 23 per thousand in the 1840s, falling to 18 to 19 per thousand by 1900; the infant mortality rate was 150 per thousand live births in the 1840s, falling to around 100 per thousand by 1900; the maternal mortality rate was around 5 per thousand births, falling to under 2 per thousand by 1900; and the average life expectancy at birth, which was about 42 for a man and 44 for a woman in 1841, had risen to 48 for a man and 52 for a woman by 1901. The typical Victorian family could expect to lose several children in infancy and at least one parent before the children reached maturity. The experience of death shaped the Victorian Family and the Home, the Victorian Daily Life and Society, the Victorian Literature, Theatre, and the Written Word, the Victorian Architecture and Interior Design, and the Victorian Fashion and Dress of the period.

This page examines the experience of death in the Victorian period, the What were Victorian funeral customs?, the Why was mourning fashion so elaborate?, the What were Victorian mourning brooches?, the Victorian cemetery movement, and the long history of the British mourning of the dead. For the broader context of Victorian society, see Victorian Society, Class, and Daily Life, and for the parent overview, see The Victorian Era: A Complete Historical Overview.

The Experience of Death

The Victorian experience of death was shaped by the high mortality of the period. The average life expectancy at birth in England in 1840 was about 42 for a man and 44 for a woman, and in the great industrial cities the figure was much lower: about 35 in Liverpool, about 33 in Manchester, and about 30 in the worst of the inner-city slums. Around 150 of every thousand infants died before their first birthday, a figure that was much higher in the great industrial cities; roughly a quarter of all children died before the age of five; and childbirth itself claimed the lives of about five mothers in every thousand deliveries. The cholera epidemics of 1831–32, 1848–49, 1853–54, and 1866 were the great crises of the period; the smallpox epidemics of the period were the other great crises; the typhus epidemics of 1847, 1864, and 1881 were the third great series of crises; and the influenza pandemic of 1889–90 was the great pandemic of the late period.

The high mortality of the period was a consequence of the poverty, the overcrowding, the poor sanitation, the contaminated water, the polluted air, the dangerous occupations, the inadequate housing, the poor diet, the limited medical knowledge, and the limited public health provision of the period. The reform of the public health, the What was the Great Stink of London?, the London sewer system, the Florence Nightingale nursing reform, the germ theory, the new Victorian Medicine and Public Health, the new Victorian Education, the new factory legislation, the new Victorian Workhouses, and the new How did Victorians treat the poor? campaign, all contributed to a gradual improvement of the mortality over the period. The 1858 Public Health Act, the 1872 Public Health Act, the 1875 Public Health Act, the Sale of Food and Drugs Act of 1875, and the consolidating Public Health Act of 1875 together created the new system of medical officers of health, sanitary districts, and urban authorities that has lasted into the present century.

Victorian Funeral Customs

The What were Victorian funeral customs? were elaborate, ritualised, and highly public. The funeral was a major social event, and the arrangements were carefully prescribed by the etiquette of the period. The principal elements of the funeral were the laying out of the body, the watch with the body, the funeral procession, the funeral service, the interment, and the funeral feast. The laying out of the body was the work of the What was life like for Victorian servants? of the period, the watch with the body was attended by the family and the close friends, the funeral procession was led by the undertaker’s mutes, the funeral service was conducted by the parish clergyman, the interment was at the parish churchyard or at the new Victorian cemetery movement of the period, and the funeral feast was a substantial meal of cold meat, cakes, and wine.

The funeral was attended by the family, the friends, the neighbours, the colleagues, the tradesmen, and the servants of the deceased, and the procession would often include the local poor, who would be given food and drink at the funeral feast. The funeral was an opportunity for the display of the Why was mourning fashion so elaborate?, the What were Victorian mourning brooches?, the Victorian hair jewellery, the mourning stationery, the mourning carriages, the mourning trappings, and the long list of other mourning accessories that were the central features of the period.

Mourning Fashion and Mourning Jewellery

The Why was mourning fashion so elaborate? was one of the great features of the Victorian period, an elaborate system of dress codes, of material restrictions, of colour restrictions, of duration restrictions, and of social restrictions that governed the dress of the bereaved. The first stage of mourning, the deep mourning, required the wearing of black crape, bombazine, paramatta, merino, cashmere, and other dull, matte, and heavy materials. The second stage of mourning, the second mourning, allowed a wider range of black materials, with the introduction of grey, white, purple, lilac, and violet half-mourning colours. The third stage of mourning, the half-mourning, allowed a still wider range of colours, with the introduction of grey, white, purple, lilac, violet, lavender, mauve, pink, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and brown half-mourning colours. The duration of the mourning was strictly prescribed by the etiquette of the period, and a widow was expected to mourn her husband for two years and one day (a “widow’s weeds”), a widower his wife for one year, a parent for one year for a child, a child for six months for a parent, a sibling for six months for a sibling, and so on.

The What were Victorian mourning brooches? were a central feature of the Why was mourning fashion so elaborate?, and the mourning jewellery of the period included the jet brooch, the onyx brooch, the black enamel brooch, the gold mourning brooch, the hair brooch, the memorial ring, the locket, the watch chain, the mourning pin, the mourning bracelet, the mourning earrings, the mourning necklace, and the mourning pendant. The mourning jewellery was worn as a mark of the bereavement, and the Victorian hair jewellery was a particularly popular form of the mourning jewellery, with the hair of the deceased worked into the design of the brooch, the ring, the locket, or the watch chain.

The Prince Consort Albert died of typhoid fever on 14 December 1861 at Windsor Castle, and the Queen’s long mourning for Albert — which lasted from 1861 until her own death on 22 January 1901 — set the standard for the elaborate mourning of the period. The Queen was known as the “Widow of Windsor” and the “Black Prince” (or rather, her courtiers and the press referred to Albert in this way after his death), and her example was followed by the upper class, the middle class, and the working class alike. The Queen’s example gave the long mourning a particular Victorian character, and the elaborate mourning was one of the great social institutions of the period.

The Cemetery Movement

The Victorian cemetery movement was one of the great Victorian reforms, a long campaign to establish new, large, landscaped, municipally owned cemeteries outside the overcrowded churchyards of the old cities. The campaign had begun in the 1820s, with the publication of the sanitary reports of the great reformers, and it had grown rapidly through the 1830s and 1840s. The new cemeteries were established by private companies, by joint-stock companies, by the new burial boards of the period, and by the local authorities of the period.

The principal cemeteries of the period included the Père Lachaise in Paris (1804), the Kensal Green in London (1833), the West Norwood in London (1837), the Highgate in London (1839), the Abney Park in London (1840), the Brompton in London (1840), the Nunhead in London (1840), the Tower Hamlets in London (1841), the Brookwood in Surrey (1852), the Woking in Surrey (1879), the Anfield in Liverpool (1863), the Southern Necropolis in Manchester (1837), the Glasgow Necropolis (1833), the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh (1846), the Glasnevin in Dublin (1832), and many others across the country. The new cemeteries were designed as landscape gardens, with winding paths, with ornamental trees, with lakes, with fountains, with statues, with mausoleums, with chapels, and with lodges.

The seven large private cemeteries opened around London between 1833 and 1841 — Kensal Green, Highgate, Abney Park, Nunhead, Brompton, West Norwood, and Tower Hamlets — became known collectively as the “Magnificent Seven” of the London cemetery movement, and they are still a feature of the modern London landscape. The new cemeteries were the inspiration for the American “rural cemetery” movement of the period, of which Mount Auburn (1831), Laurel Hill (1836), and Green-Wood (1838) were the great examples.