Tony Mears left school at the tender age of fifteen in 1965 to join Frederick W Paine Funeral Directors in Kingston-Upon-Thames as a coffin maker; a job that involved him learning all the skills of the trade, including traditional polishing and fitting of coffins.
In 1967 Tony left Frederick W Paine to join Walter Lock & Sons in Ashford, Middlesex, where he added chauffeuring and bearing to the skills he’d learned with Frederick Paine. In 1970 Tony was promoted to the role of Manager at F Harrison & Son at Englefield Green, around the same time as he passed the NAFD Funeral Directors Diploma.
From 1973 to 1977, Tony went back to work for Frederick W Paine as Manager of their Chessington office, then left to become a freelance Funeral Director, working with a number of firms in the London area. Tony then moved to Windlesham and took up a senior position with E Finch & Sons of Aldershot.
In 1974 Tony met John Ford, who was the Company Secretary at the time, working at E Finch & Sons, the family business ran by John’s Uncle Hubert. Tony and John spent fourteen years working together at Finch’s up until the time that Hubert Finch made the surprise decision to sell the company to the Great Southern Group (GSG).
Shortly after the sale of Finch’s to GSG, Tony decided to join John, who had already left the GSG owned E Finch & Sons, on a new venture. John joined forces with G M Luff & Partners of Haslemere to purchase A & W Goddard of Fleet, then established Ford Mears & Partners by renaming G M Luff of Aldershot. Two weeks later Tony then joined the new company at the Aldershot office and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
From those early days, Tony has remained at the heart of the company, helping to guide its growth and uphold the standards of care and professionalism on which it was founded. Today, he continues to work alongside John Ford and the next generation of directors, including his son, Matthew Mears, and John’s son, Simon Ford, ensuring that Ford Mears remains committed to serving families within the local community with dignity, respect, and compassion.
