The petitioner sought a faculty for the exhumation of the remains of her baby son, which had been interred in Lancashire in 2002, for their reburial near her home in West Yorkshire. She had moved to West Yorkshire in 2006. Failing health meant that it was now difficult for her to visit her son's grave as often as she would like and his father had also moved to the area, so that there were now no family members living near the grave. The father strongly objected to the exhumation, saying that he was appalled and disgusted at the suggestion that his son's remains should be disturbed after 15 years to be moved to a place with which he had had no connection. The chancellor applied the test in Re Christ Church, Alsager [1999] Fam 142, and then cross-applied as a check the test applicable in the southern province from Re Blagdon Cemetery [2002] Fam 299. The reasons advanced by the petitioner satisfied neither the Alsager test of there being a good and proper reason for the exhumation with which most right-thinking members of the Anglican Church would agree nor the Blagdon test of being exceptional. The father's reaction of horror at the thought of the exhumation and re-interment would be shared by most right-thinking members of the Anglican Church. The petition was dismissed. [RA]
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