About Us

The business we know today as W. Lauderdale & Son Funeral Services was started in 1946 on Askew Road West, Teams, Gateshead by William Lauderdale Senior – later more widely known as Billy Lauderdale.

The business went from strength to strength over the next few years. In 1960 aged 15, Billy’s son – also called William – joined his father. Due to the redevelopment of the Teams area, after 25 years the business relocated to Dunston and to Ravensworth Road.

William Lauderdale Snr, known as Billy and his son, known as Bill in the Dunston area – father and son together – cared for families across most of the Gateshead area. This sound partnership continued for some time until Billy decided to take more of a back seat from the day-to-day running of the business, allowing his son Bill to build good relationships within the local community and with local churches and clergy over the next twenty years.

In 1990 sadly Billy Snr passed away aged 69. Son Bill had to conduct the funeral and lay his father to rest in Saltwell Cemetery. Billy was now reunited with his loving wife Ena, who had died two years previously.

In the 1990s Bill’s wife Doris joined the business and soon found she had a great understanding with bereaved families. Bill and Doris worked together for over twenty years as a loving, caring team, arranging and conducting funerals and caring for grieving people in a wide range of circumstances.

In 1998 their son William Robert joined the family business. This was a proud moment for his parents; especially his father, Bill, as it meant he could now pass on his many years of knowledge and expertise to his son.

In 2000 the business moved just a short distance to larger, more modern premises. Grandfather Billy, the founder, would be most proud of his son and grandson to see Bill, Doris and William all with the same aim of carrying that Lauderdale name, character and reputation into the future – which still stand strong today in 2019.

Sadly in 2014 Bill suddenly became poorly and was admitted to hospital where, after a very short illness, Bill sadly passed away aged 69, with his loving wife Doris by his side. Since 2014 Doris has taken a step back from conducting funerals, but she is still very much involved with the day-to-day business calls.

Today in 2019, founder Billy’s grandson and Bill and Doris’ son William is at the helm of the business and continues the tradition of quality, courtesy, value and respect for every family began in 1946. William’s wife Shauna joined the business in 2017, and so began a new chapter in the history of W. Lauderdale & Son Funeral Services: a family business at the heart of the community – our family here when yours need us.