ABOUT US

In 1893, the late Mr. Stephen West began his career as an undertaker in Liverpool. The company’s first funeral home was located at the back of the property now owned by Mr. Frank Ball, on West Main Street, Liverpool. In 1917, at age 16, following the death of his father, S. Bruce Chandler came to live with and apprentice under Mr. West. In 1926, Mr. Chandler moved to Boston, Mass., returning to Liverpool in 1929. Mr. West’s daughter Jessie, had married Edgar J. Wright and when Mr. West died in 1923, Mr. Wright came home from Yarmouth to take over the family business. Mr. Wright operated the funeral home from the building in back of his home on MacPherson Street, Liverpool, for a few years. Mr. Bruce Chandler purchased the Hartlen Funeral Home, of Milton, Queens County. Two years later in 1931, Mr. Wright and Mr. Chandler formed a partnership under the name of Wright and Chandler. At this time the business was relocated to Bristol Avenue, at the end of the old bridge, on property then owned by Mr. William Shepherd. In 1945, the present premises were purchased, with continuous enlargements and improvements having been made over the years. The change in the name to Chandlers’ Funeral Service Limited did not occur until 1961, two years after the death of the late Mr. Wright.

Peter Chandler began his career in the funeral profession in 1959, joining the funeral home Wright and Chandler, which was operated by his father, S. Bruce Chandler, and Edgar Wright, and Peter later became the principal owner and operator, until his death in February of 1996.

Today, Anthony MacDiarmid, a second-generation funeral director, who apprenticed under his father Doug MacDiarmid in Oxford, N.S. and Peter Chandler in Liverpool, received his license in 1993. Anthony is now the owner of the funeral home, purchasing the funeral home from the Chandler family, late in 1997.

Kevin Samuels, an employee at Chandlers’ since 1980 is the general manager, having worked in that capacity since 1994.

There are nine full-time and part-time staff members who have all been with Chandlers’ for a number of years.