James Horne, after gaining the National Association of Funeral Directors Diploma in Funeral Directing (aged 17 years) started up his own funeral business in Woodville, South Derbyshire where he still lives. With the support of the community he very quickly built up a well established funeral home. He traded for three years on his own, until he sold the business to Tamworth Co-operative in October 1997, for whom he went to work as Operations Manager of their funeral division, where he oversaw all the day to day running of a large funeral home. He joined Ian Hazel Funerals in September 2005 as a Senior Funeral Director.