Hearse

Hearse (pronounce hurs)

(1) A vehicle, such as a specially designed car or carriage, used to carry a coffin to a place of worship and ultimately to a cemetery or crematorium; a bier or hand-cart for conveying the dead to the grave.

(2) A triangular frame for holding candles, used at the service of Tenebrae (in Christianity (Western), a service celebrated on the evening before or early morning of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, involving the gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings and psalms are chanted or recited).

(3) A framework of wood or metal placed over the coffin or tomb of the deceased and covered with a pall; also, a temporary canopy bearing wax lights and set up in a church, under which the coffin was placed during the funeral ceremonies.

(4) A hind (female deer) in the second year of her age.

(5) A grave, coffin, tomb, or sepulchral monument (obsolete).

1250–1300; From the Middle English herse, hers & herce (a flat framework for candles, hung over a coffin), from the Middle French herse (a harrow; long rake for breaking up soil, harrow; portcullis (and in churches a descriptor of those large chandeliers with some resemblance to the long prongs of a rake)), from the Old French herce, from the Medieval Latin hercia, from the Classical Latin herpicem, accusative of hirpex (harrow), a rustic word ultimately from the Oscan hirpus (wolf), said by some etymologists to be an allusion to its sharp teeth but not all agree although all seem to concur the Oscan term is related to the Latin hīrsūtus (bristly, shaggy (and the source of hirsute)).

The verb rehearse dates from circa 1300 and was from Middle English rehersen & rehercen (to give an account of, report, tell, narrate (a story); speak or write words) and by the early fourteenth century the meaning had extended to "repeat, reiterate".  The source was the Anglo-French rehearser, from the twelfth century Old French rehercier (to go over again, repeat (literally "to rake over, turn over" (soil, ground, furrows in a field))), the construct being re- (again) + hercier (to drag, trail (on the ground), be dragged along the ground; rake, harrow (land); rip, tear, wound; repeat, rehearse;" from the French forms herce & herse (a harrow).  In English, the meaning "to say over again, repeat what has already been said or written" dates from the mid-fourteenth century, the now familiar sense (as a transitive & intransitive verb) of "practice (a play, part, etc.) in private to prepare for a public performance" emerged in the 1570s.

The use of hearse to describe the vehicles carrying coffins has become so pervasive that it’s now only in ecclesiastical jargon that funeral displays or church fittings are now so-named.  The funeral display picked up the name because they typically resembled a harrow and it was only in the fifteenth century that the sense of "a portcullis" appeared in English.  From there, use extended to other temporary frameworks built over the dead to be used while ceremonies were in progress while the idea of a "vehicle for carrying a dead person to the grave" came into use in the 1640s, the adoption presumably stimulated by covering structures being added to the horse drawn carts (or biers) on which coffins had traditionally been transported uncovered.

Recent hearses of note

Lindsay Lohan in habit, emerging from hearse in Machete (2010).  The Machete hearse was based on a 1987 Cadillac Brougham (1987-1992).

Between 1931-1979, General Motors' Cadillac division offered a line called the Cadillac Commercial Chassis, a long-wheelbase, heavy-duty platform which was mechanically complete but with a partially built body (without bodywork rear of the windscreen, doors and other panels included on request).  Produced on the D platform (exclusive to Cadillac), the Commercial Chassis was used by coach-builders to create high-roofed ambulances, hearses (often called funeral coaches in the US) and cleverly designed hybrids which at short notice could be converted from ambulances to hearses or used by a coroner's staff to transport a corpse; they were popular in towns with small populations.  The early Commercial Chassis were based on the Series 355 (1931-1935) and the Series 75 (1936-1992) from 1936 and although there were specific modification to the frame, the mechanical components were always shared with the 75 which, used for the big limousines, meant costs were amortized across the ranges.  After 1980, production continued on the downsized platform but there was no longer a separate D platform, the partially bodied cars structurally identical to the mainstream line.  The landau irons (which some coachbuilders insist should be called "carriage bars") on the rear side-panels emulate in style (though not function) those used on horse-drawn carriages and early automobiles (the last probably the Mercedes-Benz 300 (the “Adenauer”; W186 (1951-1957) & W189 (1957-1962)) Cabriolet D.  On those vehicles, the irons actually supported the folding mechanism for the fabric roof but on hearses they are merely decorative, there to relieve the slab-sidedness of the expanse of flat metal.

Funeral procession of Kim I: Kim Il-sung (1912-1994; The Great Leader of DPRK (North Korea) 1948-1994 (left) and Kim II: Kim Jong-il (1941–2011; The Dear Leader 1994-2011) (right).  Kim III (Kim Jong-un (b 1984; The Supreme Leader since 2011) is chief mourner and is here pictured with his left hand holding the wing mirror, the mounting of which identifies the cars as having probably been sold in Japan. 

In the West, the tradition is now for the coffin to be carried in a glassed-in enclosure, in effect a lengthened station-wagon, often with a raised roof.  Big station wagons are now extinct so hearses are fabricated by coach-builders usually with a large sedan or SUV as a base but in the wacky world of hearses, anything seems to be possible.  One quirky variation is pursued by Kim dynasty in the DPRK (North Korea).  There, the coffin is displayed on fluffy catafalque mounted on the roof of a limousine, something not far removed from the military tradition of using horse-drawn gun carriages.

The DPRK’s hearse appears to be a 1975 or 1976 Lincoln Continental which has been lengthened, presumably by one of the US coachbuilders with which Ford made such arrangements when the cars were new.  Given the state of US-DPRK relations since the end of the Korean War (1950-1953), the unexpected appearance of the big Lincolns attracted comment when first seen at the Great Leader’s funeral in 1994.  There were three stretched Lincolns in the cortege, all appearing to have been built in 1975 or 1976 (based on the full rear fender skirts and the five vertical bars separating the grille into six sections (the later Continentals used a narrower style)) and all would be powered by a 460 cubic inch (7.5 litre) version of Ford 385 series engine.  The wheelbase on two of the cars had been extended by an estimated 36 inches (915 mm), the other by perhaps a foot (300 mm) but all appeared equipped with fittings which suggested they’d been prepared for the Japanese market and the assumption is it’s from Japan they were exported.  That’s contrary to Japanese law but it’s known to happen, using third countries (usually China) as a first port-of-call, the practice being continued by Kim III (Kim Jong-un (b 1984; The Supreme Leader since 2011) who appears to have few problems obtain the Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royces which now adorn the presidential fleet, despite Western sanctions intended to stop such imports by the DPRK.  As the funeral of the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II illustrated, there is much symbolism in the continuity of use of the symbols and regalia of a dynastic past and should the Supreme Leader die (God forbid), it’s highly likely the Lincoln will be his hearse.

Land Rover used at the funeral Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921-2021).

In the narrow technical sense, the Land Rover should probably be considered a funeral bier rather than a hearse because the coffin was un-covered, the word hearse applied such vehicles only after the hearses (framed coverings used in churches) were added to funeral biers in the 1640s.  It’s a distinction unlikely to bother many and the Land Rover has been almost universally referred to as a hearse.

It may look like many a Land Rover but, remarkably, the duke tinkered with the design over sixteen years, the result a modified 2003 Defender TD5 130 chassis cab finished in a military specification green (called dark-bronze green (or GDB in army supply parlance, reflecting the color appearing as “Green, Dark Bronze" in military databases).  Functionally, the most obvious modifications are to the tray where stainless steel stanchions with buffered, laterally placed rollers were engineered to secure the coffin and fitted to a custom made catafalque, for strength fabricated in steel rather the aluminum used for most of a Land Rover’s bodywork.  It’s actually a quite thoughtful design, suitable for parade and non-parade modes of coffin conveyance.  For parades, the coffin can be carried atop the catafalque while for transport tasks, the long, external strap hinges on the heavy steel rear hatch allow a coffin to be slipped inside the bed and thus out of view.  The rear hatch opens not to either side, but down and it includes a centre brace which folds to the ground, thereby bracing the hatch flat and so providing the bearers with more convenient lateral access to the coffin as they slide it in and out.  Cut into either side of the cabin's rear are two curved rear windows, affording the attending footmen extra visibility of their load when it's atop.  As a functional device to be used by an old Navy man, the workmanship is sturdy and well-finished but there’s been no attempt to conceal or disguise the bolt-heads and rivets.  So, it was a bit more than most of the Land Rovers (“gun buses” he called them) he used on shooting parties here and there and while he had long ago told the queen “...just stick me in the back of a Land Rover and drive me to Windsor", sixteen years of mission creep followed.

Hearses by German coach builders, Pollmann of Bremen: 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300 (W189) (left & 1967 Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100) (right).

Pollmann of Bremen have a long history in the construction of Mercedes-Benz hearses and after some difficult times in the early post-war years, the Wirtschaftswunder (the German post-war economic miracle) which emerged in the 1950s encouraged them to move from utilitarian designs to something more grand and they converted a number of 300 (W186 & W189, nicknamed the “Adenauer” because Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967; chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FGR; West Germany) 1949-1963) used a number as the state limousine) models, one technical attraction being the innovative, self-levelling rear-suspension which provided a very stable load platform, regardless of the surface, something of some importance when carrying coffins.

The 600 was built on a (lengthened) 1967 short wheelbase (SWB) platform and remains a genuine one-off, the only 600 hearse ever built.  The story (which may be true), repeated whenever it’s offered for sale, is it was originally a sedan purchased by a German farmer (always referred to as Herr K) whose particular experience of the Wirtschaftswunder was the massive capital gain enjoyed when he sold his farmland for urban development.  Happy, he bought a Mercedes-Benz 600 (in champagne metallic gold) for his wife and commissioned an architect to design a house for them to enjoy.  Unfortunately, he arrived home one day to find the ungrateful hausfrau had run off with the architect and, unable to bear to keep the 600 because it was a reminder of the strumpet’s infidelity, he returned the car to the dealer to off-load.  It was sold to the coach-builders Pollmann which converted it to a hearse which seems appropriate although it's not known if the former farmer was impressed by the symbolism of the transformation.  It was for some years used for the purpose for which it was designed and has since been restored by US-based expert in all things 600esque, Karl Middelhauve.

State Jaguar XF hearse of the Royal Mews, built for the funeral of Elizabeth II (1926-2022; Queen of the UK and other places 1952-2022).

Elizabeth II was the first monarch of the television age and quickly grasped its implications, understanding better than many politicians of the early years of the mass-adoption of the medium that it used wisely it was a useful tool but that little good came from over-exposure.  Well acquainted too with a feeling for color, light and angle from long and sometimes doubtlessly tiresome sessions with painters and photographers, she sometimes surprised television producers with her knowledge of the technical aspects of their trade.  Her contributions the design of her own Jaguar XF hearse were those of someone who knew her funeral would be her last performance as a content provider for television and probably one which would attract the greatest audience in history.  Accordingly, the queen specified a design which would afford the best possible view of her coffin, regardless of the camera angle, so the glass would be more expansive, the roof was raised several inches from the dimension supplied originally by the royal household, the roof panel above the coffin fully glazed a particular request.  Climate change has affected the UK but it can still be relied upon sometimes to be dark and gloomy and, not knowing what the weather would offer on the day, she had the rear compartment fitted with lighting which would illuminate in a way that, if need be, there would be a clear, reflection-free view through the glass.

The state hearse is finished in Royal Claret, a specific royal-family color (and an official part-number used by manufacturers with a royal warrant) and has a notably large hood ornament, a silver-plated bronze statue of St. George slaying a dragon, a personal mascot of Her Majesty which appeared also on the state Bentley limousine.  The automotive ornaments seem to have been a bit of a thing for the queen, renderings of dogs sometimes observed on her Range Rovers.