John G. Corse Funeral Directors

31/10/2025

Great work by the team at W R Tullock & Sons Ltd once again. We’re all pleased with the latest addition👌🏻. 🌷💐🚐
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Fh4AKQzHW/?mibextid=wwXIfr

27/10/2025

A huge thank you to everyone for your kind comments after our appearance on Enterprising Orkney on Radio Orkney. Thank you to Karen for inviting us along for a chat. I hope everyone enjoyed the music choices 😀 if you haven’t heard it you can still have a listen.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16ZrJnt6UC/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Hear the Corse family talk about operating one of the best known businesses in Orkney. Programme link in comments.

Operating as John G. Corse Funeral Directors, they have touched the lives of most families across the islands over the years.

Listen to them in conversation with Karen Scholes in the first Enterprising Orkney programme of this new winter season of Radio Orkney evening programmes on BBC Sounds.

We’re grateful to John, Calum, Ross and Iona for taking the time to come into the studio and tell us all about what it’s like growing up in the funeral business, and the hard work and effort they’ve put in to building the business to where it is today.

They had so much to talk about they even forgot to mention John’s MBE! This programme was first broadcast at 6pm on Monday 13th October.

13/10/2025

Tune in tonight at 6pm to hear us interview by Karen Scholes on Enterprising Orkney.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1J5KSxipWN/?mibextid=wwXIfr

07/10/2025

Congratulations to our Funeral Director Malcolm Scott, who just completed his final IFD courses and achieved his certificate in Funeral Practice.

Malcolm completed 4 separate courses to achieve his certificate in funeral practice-
Health and safety
Foundation funeral practitioner
Funeral operative
Funeral arranging and administrative

We are extremely proud of Malcolm who has worked very hard over the past 18months to complete all his courses.

Malcolm’s certificates have taken pride of place on the wall along with Ross and Calum’s.

28/06/2025

It was with huge devastation to the Corse family and the wider community of Orkney when John Corse Senior passed away very suddenly on 28th June 1995 at the age of 63.
John Corse Junior had been helping out part time within the business, juggling his time around his full time job of a carpet fitter, and being there for his young family.
When his father, John Corse Senior passed away, John Corse Junior decided to make the career change to keep the business going.
This marks a major milestone within the business, making it 30 years today since John Corse Junior took over management of the business (being the not so junior John Corse that you know today!)
Please join us in congratulating John on this major milestone in his career.
Further posts will follow on the achievements he has made over the years.

26/06/2025

When John Corse (senior) took the business on, it moved away from Palace Road, as he rented a section of the old BT buildings on Old Scapa Road behind the licensing office shown below.

After around 5 years of being at Old Scapa Road, he then moved to Glaitness Road unfortunately there’s just a present day photo to share, where he stayed until around 1990. Both these premises were just used as coffin storage and a workshop for furnishing coffins.

Back then families had the choice of using the OIC owned Rolls Royce Hearse known as the ‘toon hearse’ or the funeral directors estate cars as a lower cost option. Ours was a black Citroen CX estate. Unfortunately the only photo we have is below of only the front. Ross started his training young as you can see - but he’s got a bigger bucket now!

The early 90s was probably the start of major milestones for the business under John snr, firstly his own premises built in Hatston Industrial Estate. This was a coffin store, workshop and a garage. The garage was required as a hearse was in the pipeline!

The summer of 1992 it arrived. John Jnr and Clive Bews made the trip to Worksop to collect the Daimler DS420 hearse.

Once again, if you have any stories or photos to share with us of the business in this era we would love if you could share this with us.
Further posts will follow of the next stages of the business.

18/06/2025

We are approaching a few big milestones over the next few years as a business, the first coming later this month.
But before we look to the future, let’s have a peedie look back to where the business first started.

A Westray man, David M. Kirkness, moved to Kirkwall to serve his apprenticeship as a joiner. He and his brother, William, went on to set up in business as joiners and undertakers in around 1880.

In 1888 William left and David began to trade as D. M. Kirkness and introduced a sideline which made the name famous - Orkney chairs!

In 1936 David Kirkness passed away, just a few weeks after his retirement, but the business continued by Mr Kirkness’s friend and long service employee, William Price.
In fact it seems that another employee, William Hay, kept the D. M. Kirkness name alive.
According to the Kirkwall Valuation Roll, he rented the workshop on Palace Road from David Kirkness’s son William until 1942 and then bought the premises. He carried on the joinery and undertaking business into the 1950s but the chair making was stopped by World War II.

In 1956 the business was bought by Reynold Eunson, Reynold re-introduce the making of Orkney Chairs to the joinery workshop on Palace Road.
The photos below show the workshop on Palace Road under Reynolds ownership.
Reynold ran the business as a joiners, Funeral Directors and Orkney chair maker until he passed away in 1978.

The Funeral Directors part of the business was bought over by a local serving policeman coming close to retirement by the name of John George Corse (snr).

John G Corse Funeral Directors was established, more updates on that to follow. We’d love to see any photos and hear any stories from the above era of the business.

11/06/2025

John G. Corse M.B.E

After being awarded his M.B.E on the King's Birthday Honours 2024, accompanied by his wife Etta and sister Barbara, John travelled to Windsor Castle on 16th April 2025 to attend his investiture ceremony.

John was presented his M.B.E by The Princess Royal.

John was awarded the M.B.E for his services to the Orkney Community.

26/03/2025

Check out this new addition to out memorial display. A 6” boulder! It’s a heavy bit of stone but it does look smart. Something different from what is in our brochure, these are available in Black, Dark Grey, Vizag blue and Red granite.