H J NEWMAN - Key Persons

Harold Newman was a well respected member of the community from a young age representing the England youth football team in his teenage years, before serving as a Grenadier Guard for over 17 years. After a distinguished military career Harold eventually left the armed services for civilian life in 1948. Becoming a local councillor Harold again served his local community for a number of years. With a history of running several very successful local businesses in 1960 he eventually established H.J Newman Funeral Directors (originally trading as Newman & Son) with a very clear vision. That vision "to provide a trusted and caring approach to funeral services in Berkshire" remains at the core of the family run business today. Harold was joined running the business by his son Eric in 1962 and later on by his daughter-in-law Petula in 1979. Eric and Petula eventually took over running the business in 2002 when Harold sadly passed away. Today Tina Newman-Rowden and her nephew Ben Newman the third & fourth generation of the Newman family continue to run the business focused on Harold's vision of providing the highest standard of care and advice as one of the last remaining family run funeral directors in Berkshire.

I just wanted to say thank you to the whole Newman Team, in particular Tina, Barbara and Ben. Each contact with Newmans to arrange mum's funeral was exceptional. Not only did Newmans ensure the whole day ran smoothly but showed respect for mum. They remained confidential, are compassionate, caring, and truly understand the significance of loss and how to support a grieving family. This is the first time my family and I have arranged a funeral, and we are truly grateful to have been given their details by the registrar's office. We didn't need to inform them of Sikh customs, instead they were able to reassure and advise us about the process and accommodate our requests. We had arranged for horses and a carriage for mums final journey and it was beautiful, and exactly what mum wanted and deserved. Thank you so much for everything.

We are very grateful to Newmans funeral service for the sensitivity to the family and respect they showed towards our late father. My fathers funeral was smooth and he had a wonderful farewell. As we are Sikhs Newmans were fully aware of the final rites that were appropriate to our faith. They even managed to find a wonderful substitute to a track that we wanted played in the crematorium. Given the circumstances we had a very smooth experience.

My Aunt left instructions for her funeral to be undertaken by H.J Newman. She certainly made a good choice. Tina and the team were very supportive and we could not have had better guidance for arranging our first funeral. Everything was explained comprehensively, contacts were given for 'order of service', and for the lady, Pauline, that was to lead the service. All were excellent. Thank you H.J.Newman

I never really imagined I would review a funeral directors, or that there would be much variation between different providers but on both counts I was wrong. We visited 3 companies in Slough. Our first stop was Co-op (they had collected the body as arranged by the police, I guess they get a lot of business because of this...) anyway, they were dreadful, patronising and pushing their most expensive package hard by pointing out they wouldn't have pall bearers carry the coffin on any cheaper packages and would just push the coffin in on a trolley, they also couldn't offer any slots for several weeks. The second company were fine, kind and helpful but only offered a couple of set packages. Then we arrived at Newmans. The woman we dealt with (apologies, I don't remember her name) was lovely. She explained that we were free to pick and choose each and every element we wanted in the funeral with no pressure to add in extras to bump up the cost, we were provided with clear and easy to understand prices for everything so we could make informed choices and they were helpful in recommending suppliers for flowers and order of service stationery but also went to great lengths to reassure us there was no obligation and we were welcome to use our suppliers of choice if we wished. They liaised with our chosen minister and took care of everything to make sure everything was in place for the day and they then carried out the agreed service with utmost professionalism. It's not the sort of purchase you can really be enthusiastic about, but I would recommend Newmans wholeheartedly. The price was competitive but the service was miles ahead of the competition. They made a difficult situation as good as it could have been.