CPJ Field
tackling loneliness and social isolation, particularly after bereavement. Never Alone has grown in ways that make us enormously proud. It includes an award-winning Community Choir, friendship and contact groups and Never Alone Buddies, a collaborative knitting project. Each initiative is built around a simple idea: human connection matters, especially when people are struggling. As a family, we are equally clear that any success CPJ Field & Co. has enjoyed over the centuries has not been achieved by our family alone. It has been built alongside remarkable colleagues whose professionalism, compassion and dedication define our business every day. Their contribution is woven into our story. So, when I think about legacy, I do not think first about age or milestones. I think about people and impact. To me, legacy is measured not by how long a company has existed, but by how well it serves others, strengthens communities, supports colleagues and enhances the society it serves.
but it is not everything in itself. For our family, legacy is about the positive impact a business can have over time; how it serves people, earns trust, supports communities and remains engaged with society through changing generations. Over the centuries, our family has conducted the funerals of huge public figures: Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington amongst very many others. Those moments are part of our story, but alone they are not the heart of it. The heart of our work rests in the everyday acts of service that rarely make headlines: guiding a grieving family, bringing calm in difficult moments, and helping people say goodbye with dignity and compassion. In short, our culture of service and care.
Charlie Field Co-Chief Executive and tenth generation, CPJ Field
When people hear that CPJ Field & Co. was founded in 1690, their first reaction is often surprise at the age of the business. It is understandable; relatively few companies can trace their roots back quite that far. For us, we are conscious of the privilege and responsibility that accompanies that history. Today, with my brother Jeremy Field and sister Emily Hendin, we have the honour of leading the company as the 10th generation. We oversee 40 funeral homes across the South of England, continuing a role that our great- grandparents (whose portraits stare at us from the Boardroom wall) also carried out with care and dedication. But if I am honest, legacy has never meant longevity alone.
That is where our values come to life.
Heritage matters to us, not as nostalgia, but as a duty to carry
forward the ethos of those who came before. Commitment means being dependable in life’s most difficult moments. Trust is something earned patiently and never taken for granted. Caring is, quite simply, at the centre of everything we do. My family has also always believed that business has a responsibility to contribute beyond its own commercial success. We have a responsibility to the communities that place their confidence and trust in us. That belief is reflected in The Field Family Fund, which supports grassroots charities and volunteer organisations across Sussex, our home county. It is also reflected in Never Alone, our movement dedicated to
A long history is something to respect,
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FBUK Issue 7
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