Cullercoats
North Shields
Tyne and Wear NE30 3ER
Tel: 0191 252 6500
or 0191 257 0222
E-mail: info@rylandfuneral.co.uk
Press
- News Guardian - January 20, 2005
- News Guardian - February 24, 2005
- News Guardian - November 24, 2005
- News Guardian - October 4, 2007
News Guardian - January 20, 2005
Jonathan in Asia to help in the aftermath
A FUNERAL director is in Thailand helping in the aftermath of the devastating Boxing Day tsunami.
Jonathan Ryland, a fully qualified, embalmer travelled to the region last weekend to help prepare and embalm victims.
The 37-year-old helps run Cullercoats based R J Ryland Funeral Services with his parents, Edward and Brenda Ryland.
"He got a call on Friday asking if he was willing to travel to Thailand to help out," said Edward. "He was on the plane by 9pm on Saturday so he didn't have a lot of time to think about it.
"As you can imagine, communication with him is very difficult so we can only guess at what he will be doing."
Jonathan is part of a rotation distress team with people chosen from Australia, the United States and Britain and will be in Thailand for three weeks before coming home.
He will then be replaced by others to continue the work.
As part of the task he signed a confidentiality agreement to prevent families hearing full details of the work carried out on their loved ones.
He also needed a cholera jab to prevent the spread of disease.
"We know it is a difficult job but this is his job and what he is trained for," added his father.
News Guardian - February 24, 2005
Jonathan back from tsunami hit Thailand
A CULLERCOATS funeral director has returned from tsunami hit Thailand. Jonathan Ryland was part of an international aid team based in Phuket.
He was one of more than 100 people from over 20 countries who were deployed to help in relief and recovery operations.
Jonathan, of R J Ryland Funeral Services, spent three weeks in the Thai resort, along with a variety of professionals, including forensic scientists, embalmers, mortuary technicians, bereavement counsellors, logistics and management personnel, as well as communications specialists.
He said the area had been utterly devastated by the force of the tsunami and he and his colleagues had to work in extremely difficult geographical conditions.
In Thailand with the Kenyon International Emergency Services, he and fellow members performed a number of activities, including collecting data for disaster victim identification and building and managing a repatriation centre to help return victims to their families.
This meant providing portable mortuaries and mortuary support to the nations that lost citizens in the tsunami.
The first Kenyon team members arrived in Phuket on December 28 and they expect to have a presence in Thailand for several months yet.
News Guardian - November 24, 2005
Funeral firm offers civil service
By News Reporter Tel (0191) 251 8484
A NEW form of funeral service that can be held almost anywhere except in churches or religious buildings is being pioneered in North Tyneside.
Civil funerals, as they are known, are driven by the wishes, beliefs and values of the deceased and their family - not those of the person conducting the funeral.
Jonathan Ryland of R J Ryland Funeral Services in Cullercoats is the first in the region to be made a member of the Institute of Civil Funerals and will act as celebrant when this type of ceremony is requested.
A civil funeral can be held in any suitable location, including a home or funeral parlour.
The format is wide ranging and can be adapted to a cremation or burial.
The firm has added this type of personal tribute and celebration of a life to the more usual traditional religious or humanist options because of interest now being shown in alternative forms of service.
However, a religious element, such as a prayer, hymn, reading or appropriate music, can be incorporated in a civil ceremony.
Jonathan, who runs the independent family business with his parents, Edward and Brenda, is the first funeral director in the area appointed to a panel able to officiate on behalf of other funeral companies if asked to do so.
He is the current secretary of the British Institute of funeral directors for the North-East and Cumbria.
Earlier this year he spent three weeks in Thailand helping to embalm victims in the aftermath of the tsunami that devastated many parts of Asia.
News Guardian - October 4, 2007
Borough funeral director's prominent role
THE new chairman and secretary of the north east and Cumbria region of the British Institute of Funeral Directors is Jonathan Ryland, of RJ Ryland Funeral Services, Cullercoats.
Previously vice-chairman and secretary, he accepted the chain of office from national president Roger Clark on a tour of funeral businesses in the area.
He takes over from Colin Liddell, of Wallsend.
Jonathan runs the Cullercoats-based funeral service with his parents, Edward and Brenda.
The business in Farringdon Road was established in 1993 and covers the North Tyneside and Newcastle area.
As a fully qualified embalmer, Jonathan spent three weeks in Thailand in January 2005 as part of an nternational aid team in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami that devastated many parts of Asia.
He studied at the Westminster College of Funeral Directing and was the first funeral director in the north east to become a celebrant for cremations and burials on behalf of the Institute of Civil Funerals.
