Worksop man honoured by Queen for services to mortuary facilities

Mortuary equipment expert Paul Venners was called upon by the Cabinet Office in March to provide facilities as the Government prepared for a heavy death toll due to the pandemic.

Paul, 72, who has worked quietly for over 30 years to improve the ‘dignity’ of storage for those who have died, was asked to manufacture enough space for 28,500 bodies.

The pensioner’s company - laboratory, funeral and mortuary equipment supplier Leec - normally fulfils orders for between 6-7,000 a year, meaning an increase of over 20,000.

For the next eight weeks the Nottingham-based firm worked around the clock from 5.30am until 10.30pm to provide units for Nightingale Hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

And this week Paul and others at the 70-year-old business have been in talks to discuss ways of coping should the Government call on them again.

Former North Yorkshire man Paul, who was a Government forensics and mortuary design consultant for seven years, has travelled the world advising governments on standards for mortuaries.

He has designed 1,000-body mortuaries for use in natural disasters in India and Indonesia and presented papers across the globe on the best way to design storage.

However the dad-of-two described how his mission - and that of his company - was to ‘improve the dignity’ of people’s lost loved ones.

Paul, who left school with no qualifications, started out as an apprentice carpenter before eventually becoming an estates manager for the NHS in Bassetlaw.

After Leec built a mortuary for Bassetlaw Hospital the company asked him to join as a director - where his enduring passion would be to improve standards across the industry.

The company are now considered ‘world leaders’ in the safe storage of the deceased.

Paul said: “When I first started doing mortuaries was when I realised what was going on behind the scenes - so I started trying to change things.

“Equipment for funeral directors, embalmers, mortuary and autopsy technicians was so out-of-date.

“People did their best to look after the bodies but the lack of equipment meant a lot of manual lifting and ventilation was very bad - it was awful really.”

And the design faults were not limited just to mortuaries - Paul has even advised on hospital building layout to ensure bodies can be transported privately away from the public gaze.

He said: “I’ve been on a mission to improve things because we’ve all lost a relative at some point.

“And I’ve always tried to think ‘how would I want my own mother to be treated?’”

Grandfather-of-five Paul designed forensic units for all of England’s police forces and charged the Government just a third of his usual fee for his Covid-19 response work.

Speaking about his New Year Honour - an OBE - Paul said: “I’m pleased that they’ve recognised the importance of the work going on behind the scenes for people’s loved ones.

“It is all very much back-of-house but I like to think I’ve tried to change people’s attitudes to how bodies should be looked after - this is an acknowledgement.”

All photos taken by Spike Photography

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