'King of the Wigan undertakers' Brian Halliwell is mourned at 67

He had been ill for some time but, paying tribute, family said that the 67-year-old was in charge – and joking – to the very end.

Mr Halliwell was the managing director of R Banks and Sons which, over the decades, has conducted countless thousands of Wiganers’ funerals.

He was also a dedicated brass band musician and administrator who came to the rescue of his local outfit and some of whose happiest moments were on the stage, including that of the Royal Albert Hall.

His son Martin said: “My dad loved a laugh and a joke and he was joking to the last. I was at his hospital bedside in tears and he smacked me in the tummy and said ‘buck up lad!’

"And his last words were a much repeated family in-joke dating back generations about old public transport in the smog, saying ‘tell the grandchildren to watch t’trams’!”

Born in Orrell to Cliff and Elsie Halliwell, the young Brian went to Highfield St Matthew’s and Highfield Seniors schools, after which he went to work for Pilkington’s Glass, first in St Helens and then in Lathom as an apprentice plumber.

But there was no doubt where his career intentions really lay.

Cliff had previously bought Pemberton-based R Banks and Son (founded 1921) from Richard Banks who was having to retire through ill health and had no obvious family successor.

It was doing well and it seemed logical for Brian to follow his dad into the business, the plumbing detour being part of a plan to learn a trade and have a different life experience before following in his father’s footsteps.

In those days there were only a handful of staff and three branches – the other two being at Bryn and Scholes – and so Brian began at the bottom and was given all manner of different roles to fulfil on a regular basis.

But as the years went by, his responsibilities grew and when Cliff himself had to step down due to ill health in the early 1990s, his son took over the day-to-day operations.

Brian only became MD though when his father died in 1998, after which expansion plans were launched. The first new branch was in Standish and was, appropriately, called Clifford House.

Today R Banks and Sons has no fewer than 13 branches across Wigan and Preston and employs 60 staff.

Its fleet of cars includes a limousine used by Churchill during World War Two which was converted into a hearse, and at one time he also had in his ownership the hearse which carried Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother at her funeral although this has since gone to a museum.

Mr Halliwell met his future wife Jennifer when she came to Banks’s in 1980 to cancel the cars (they didn’t just do funerals in those days) that had been booked for her wedding to someone else but was not now going ahead!

They were married four years later at Highfield St Matthew’s and went on to have two children: Carina who now becomes MD, and Martin. He also leaves four grandchildren.

Music had long been a passion for Mr Halliwell from the age of seven when he joined Pemberton Band.

The tenor horn was his instrument and while he was unable to play in recent years due to illness, he remained heavily involved until the end.

He played with the acclaimed Wingates Band in the 1970s and ’80s and Martin says that his proudest moment was performing with it when it won the British Open in 1975.

He returned to Pemberton Band in 1986 and found it on the verge of bankruptcy. But he and others helped to build it up until it was enjoying many top ranking successes. These days it is the Pemberton Old Wigan DW Band, one of its biggest supporters being local tycoon Dave Whelan.

Mr Halliwell was diagnosed with the progressive and incurable lung condition ideopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2016.

It causes scarring to the lungs and renders sufferers increasingly breathless.

Various treatments, including oxygen therapy at Breath of Life in Morecambe, helped to ease the symptoms and, family say, prolong his life.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, Mr Halliwell was obliged for obvious health reasons to take a back seat and remain at his Gathurst home.

But Martin said that that did not mean that he wasn’t still in charge!

However his health continued to decline and on his second spell in Wigan Infirmary this month, he was diagnosed with pneumonia.

On Friday July 22 doctors told family that there wasn’t much else they could do for him other than to make him comfortable.

Martin said: “He was lucid and he knew what was happening and what was going to happen.

"He was at peace and was not frightened. He told us exactly what he wanted for the funeral and for us. He had time to plan everything.

"Then he asked for a cup of tea and drank it. The nurse then gave him an injection and he just slipped away.

"Dad was simply my hero and we’ll all miss him terribly.”

The funeral takes place at 11am on Saturday July 30 at Highfield St Matthew’s followed by burial in the family plot in the church’s grounds alongside Mr Halliwell’s parents.

Martin is running the London Marathon later this year and has decided to do it while raising money for research into ILF. He has set up a JustGiving page.