The EHRC finally makes up its mind

[vinteuil]

. the policy of The Times -

"The relatively new obituary style which was pioneered by Hugh Massingberd...

A mishtake here, I think. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd (crazy name... ) was at the Telegraph, not the Times

...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Massingberd

[ahinton]

I wonder why obituarists still feel the need to record that someone 'never married'. Why not just leave it their surviving next of kin and have done with it?

That would indeed seem reasonable but, in direct answer to your question, I imagine that it's down to the fact that most obits of people who had been married mentioned at least something of the marriage/s concerned, so to mention nothing about a marriage might be regarded as tantamount to writing "he/she never married".

[Flosshilde]

... if you liked that - you may like this...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1556420/Count-Gottfried-von-Bismarck.html

[one feels that the concluding sentence - He never married - was hardly necessary... ]

Absolutely priceless - as Am says, a masterpiece. So many delicious phreases. I particularly like 'guilded aimlessness' - a condition I will, unfortunately, never achieve (the guilding being the problem).