Trevor Hunnaball, founder of the Hunnaball Family Funeral Group, East Anglia’s largest independent funeral director, with thirteen branches in Essex and Suffolk, has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Association of Funeral Directors. The SEIB NAFD Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by insurance providers SEIB, was presented at an awards lunch at Dorney Lake, Windsor, on 4th July 2023 with many of the funeral industry’s leading figures in attendance. There to see Trevor receive the award were his wife Melanie, who helped found the group with him in 1983, his son Saul and daughter Polly, both of whom work with him in the business. The group has branches in Chelmsford, Braintree, Kelvedon, Witham, Stanway, Colchester, West Mersea and Manningtree, as well as a further three in Ipswich and Sudbury, plus a memorials division, a training centre, an operations hub and the Lexden Garden of Remembrance.
Trevor said, “I really don’t know what to say. I’m a bit overwhelmed, and just want to say thank you to SEIB and the NAFD for this honour. It has been a privilege to look after so many bereaved families for so many years, and to have the support of my family and a great team working with me.”
Trevor has plenty of cause to celebrate this year, marking not only a Lifetime Achievement Award, but also the 40th anniversary of the Hunnaball Family Funeral Group, as well as an amazing 65 years in the industry last December. Trevor has been working as a funeral professional ever since he left school at the tender age of 15.
Over six and a half decades, he has seen some amazing changes in the industry, spearheading many of its most significant milestones. Trevor has been at the forefront of the advancement of women as funeral professionals, the birth and rise of woodland burials and the breaking of taboos around talking about death – to name just a few.
While others partied through the sixties, Trevor worked hard to attain his professional qualifications. In 1965, while the Beatles were busy issuing the Help! and Rubber Soul studio albums, Trevor passed his Diploma in Funeral Service. In 1969, the year of Abbey Road and Let It Be, he also successfully completed his Diploma in Embalming.
Despite working hard to establish and expand the Hunnaball group, Trevor’s aim has always been to serve the industry as a whole. He took the mantle of Chairman of the Essex & Suffolk Association of Funeral Directors on three occasions during the 1980s and ‘90s, and Chairman of the East Anglia Area Federation twice. He served on both the National Council and Executive Committee of the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD), becoming National President in 1994.
At 80, Trevor is still at the head of the Hunnaball Family Funeral Group, supported by three of his and Melanie’s adult children and their spouses. Despite celebrating his 65 years in the profession, Trevor has no plans to retire, although he is looking forward to spending a little more time on his boat.
