[1] Despite the opening of Woking Crematorium in 1878[1] and the passing of the Cremation Act 1902, which came into effect on 1 April 1903,[2] it remained controversial, on religious grounds,[3] in the first decade of the twentieth century.

[5] In a letter read at the opening ceremony, Bishop Gore wrote:[3] What I should desire when I myself die is that my body should be reduced rapidly to ashes, so that it may do no harm to the living, and then in accordance with Christian feeling be laid in the earth.Similarly, Bishop Knox wrote that:[3] In spite of strong sentimental objections very naturally entertained, we shall come to see that under the conditions of modern life cremation is not only preferable from the sanitary point of view, but that it is also the most reverent and decent treatment of the bodies of the dead.The ceremony was conducted by Sir Henry Thompson, first president of the Cremation Society of Great Britain.

The proceedings at the opening of the Birmingham Crematorium should go far to impress the minds of any who study them with a sense of the desirability of cremation whether viewed from a religious or from a scientific and sanitary standpoint.It was his last public duty as the society's president; he died the following year, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.

[1] Built on a site previously known as Sheldon Coppice,[6] alongside the A34 (Walsall Road), the Birmingham facility cost £7,000,[4] and had furnaces designed by Messrs. Wilcox & Raikes.

Pews were replaced by chairs, the wooden ceiling was painted, and a gallery over the area where the coffin rests (not present when the crematorium was opened) was removed.