About us
In 2018 Hiram Philp Funerals celebrated 115 years of delivering dignified, quality funeral services to the people of Toowoomba and the surrounding country areas in Queensland. We still operate from the original location where the business was founded in 1903.
Early Days of the Funeral Business
Local identity and businessman, Mr Hiram Philp, with his wife Emma, decided to expand their joinery business to offer a funeral service.
Hiram Philp Funerals has been serving the region since 1903.
Delivering the same respected and quality service to the community the family was renowned for in their joinery business, Hiram Philp Funerals became the premier funeral home on the Downs. Mr Philp was known to spend many hours in the evening hand polishing coffins and caskets.
Four of Hiram Philp’s children followed him into the business; sons Richard, William, and Robert and his daughter Gladys. Three grandsons were to follow and also work in the family business. They were Hiram Jr (known as Phil), Murray and Don. As the funeral home business grew, the decision was made in 1964 to close the sawmill and in 1970 to close the joinery shop.
Hiram Philp died on the 18th June 1943, aged 85 years and is buried at the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery.
Hiram Philp Funerals established many firsts in the Funeral Industry on the Downs. They conducted the first burial at the Drayton and Toowoomba Lawn Cemetery on the 20th May 1966 and the first cremation on the 2nd September 1969, at the Garden of Remembrance Cemetery and Crematorium.