'It's not dark and depressing because we care for the living' - Hull funeral director Mark Horton reflects on profession as he becomes SAIF president

Mark, 47, from Gilberdyke, East Yorkshire, runs Hull-based Hortons Funeral Directors, a family affair also involving his wife and son. He has recently been elected President of SAIF, the UK’s largest trade association dedicated to protecting the interests of independent funeral directors and their customers.

Mark, who launched his company in 2009 and brings local families together each year for a popular annual remembrance service, will serve for a year until March 2024. He has pledged to focus on communicating the “invaluable work” of independent funeral directors, which he says "give families a good local knowledge and care and guidance when they need it most”.

Mark studied engineering at college with the view to becoming a welder fabricator, but says he woke up one morning with a burning desire to become a funeral director and changed tack after finishing his apprenticeship. “It was just an inner calling to look after families and care for the bereaved,” he says.

Doing so during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic was a challenging time, when families were not always able to see their loved ones or give them a service they would have wanted. “It was hard for them not be able to grieve properly. And it was upsetting for us as well as families, because you’re there to care for families.”

Mark says he’s looking forward to working with the SAIF leadership team to highlight the value of independent funeral directors. He says: “Independent funeral directors have been at the forefront of innovation and transformation across the profession in recent decades and I’ve no doubt that this trend will continue for many years to come. However, our sector is threatened by profit-hungry players who want to dupe the public into thinking that bereavement can be reduced to an online click and collect-type service. If this trend continues unabated it will have a terrible impact on mental health and it’s our job as independent funeral directors to educate communities and governments about the importance of gathering and remembering when a loved one dies.”

Mark, who has previously been a quality assurance inspector for funeral directors across the country, has also chosen a charity to support during his presidential year. He will be encouraging SAIF’s more than 1,000 funeral director members to back The Honeypot Children’s Charity, which supports young carers who look after a sick or disabled parent or sibling.