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.
