A BLACKHEATH funeral director has been made chairman of a prestigious European organisation.

Peter Gaunt, of F P Gaunt and Sons, was elected chairman of the European Division of Selected Independent Funeral Homes at a meeting in London last week.

Membership of the prestigious association is by invitation only and is offered to funeral homes judged to offer excellent service.

Mr Gaunt is the fourth generation of his family to run the High Street funeral directors.

In 1966 he was part of a 400 strong team of volunteer embalmers at the Aberfan Disaster where 116 children and 28 adults died when a stream of colliery waste swept down the side of a mountain into a school and houses.