Her daughters Jennifer and Lesley were looking for a simple funeral with a "lack of fuss and a lack of formality, because that was the sort of woman she was".

BBC: Green burials' growing popularity

The Victorian writer - whose fame had reached international proportions by the time he died of a stroke at his home in Higham in 1870 - had requested a simple funeral in the cemetery of the Kent cathedral, Mr Hesketh said.

BBC: The empty grave of Charles Dickens

On March 17th he had his wish, or most of it: a state funeral for all the poilus at Les Invalides, and then a simple family burial.

ECONOMIST: Lazare Ponticelli