April 17th 1895 saw Scotland's first cremation at Glasgow's Western Necropolis.
After a long search for an appropriate piece of land bought in 1893, it was two years before the first cremation took place. The Crematorium was built in the gothic revival style. The architect used only the finest materials, including red sandstone and rare marble and included fine carvings, dogtooth ornament and a ‘descending catafalque’ which the Directors considered to be less of a departure from a traditional earth burial.
Cremations were extremely slow to catch on and, after ten years, only 191 had actually been carried out. After a further 30 years the annual figure was still only 346 but that did not deter the Society and, in 1936, they set to work doubling the capacity of the chapel to 100 and building four additional floors onto the Crematorium . In the late 1940’s, as a result of increasing popularity, a second chapel was commissioned, opening as an extension of the existing buildings in 1954.
Wall space in the Chapel was widely used for memorial plaques but by 1953 the space was entirely used up and it was therefore decided it was decided to introduce a Book of Remembrance that continues to be in use to this day.
Photo from Bilbo on Geograph here https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/362829
