Memorial QR Code Plaque with Memory Page

We make one thing, and we make it properly: a small engraved memorial QR code plaque, with a private memory page behind it.

The plaque fixes to a headstone, a memorial bench, an urn or a picture frame. Anyone who finds it points a phone camera at it, and their memory page opens — photographs, video, voice recordings, and the things people wrote about them. No app. No account. About four seconds from lifting the phone to reading.

What a memorial cannot hold

None of what follows applies to everybody. Most families run into one or two of them.

• The stone has room for about twelve words. A name, two dates, and if the mason can fit it, a line like "much loved". That is the complete public record of eighty years.
• The photographs are scattered. Some on a phone, some in a loft, some on a laptop nobody has the password to. Almost none of them captioned, and the people who could say who is in them are the people you have lost.
• The family is spread out. A grandchild in Australia cannot visit a grave in Lancashire. For some families the memorial is somewhere most of them will never stand.
• Nobody wrote the ordinary things down. How he answered the phone. The way she said your name when she was pleased with you. Three generations on, most families cannot say anything specific about an ancestor beyond a name on a certificate.
• The digital memorial itself lapses. Pages on annual subscriptions come down when a card expires or the person paying dies, and the reminder emails go to an inbox nobody is reading.

How we deal with each of those

• Space, without touching the stone. The memorial keeps the name and the dates exactly as it always has. Everything that would not fit goes behind the code — room for 1,000 photographs, 30 minutes of video and 30 minutes of audio.
• Somewhere to put the photographs, with the captions attached. Upload from a phone, caption them, name the people in the frame while there is still someone who knows.
• A memorial anyone can reach. Relatives who cannot travel open the same page from anywhere. Order more than one plaque and they all point at the same page, so a headstone and an urn on a mantelpiece in another country are the same memorial.
• Other people can add what you never knew. Share the link and colleagues, neighbours and old friends can contribute the version of them you never met. You approve anything before it appears.
• Paid for once. Hosting is covered at the point of purchase. There is no subscription, no renewal, and nothing that can quietly lapse. You can download a complete archive of everything at any time, in ordinary file formats, and keep your own copy.

How it works

1. Check permission first, if it is going somewhere public. Cemeteries and churchyards have their own rules. Our guide to putting a QR code on a headstone explains who actually decides — more often the grave deed holder than the council.
2. Order, and start the page straight away. We email you as soon as you order, so you can begin before the plaque has even arrived.
3. Fill it in your own time. One photograph is a start. Most pages grow slowly, over years.
4. Fix the plaque. Peel and press. It takes a minute, and weatherproof fixings and instructions are in the box. Fitting it last means the first person who scans it sees something finished.

Choosing a size and finish

The 50mm is the size most people choose, and the standard for memorial plaques of this kind. It sits discreetly on a headstone or bench, and also suits urns, picture frames and keepsakes kept at home.

The 80mm is easier to scan from further back, so a visitor can hold their phone at a comfortable distance rather than crouching at the stone. Worth considering if the memorial sits low to the ground, or the people visiting are elderly.

Brushed steel suits granite and modern headstones. Matte black suits pale or polished stone. Antique brass sits better against older weathered stone and churchyard memorials. All three cost the same, and you can mix sizes and finishes across an order.

Where we have put our money where our mouth is

• If the cemetery says no, we refund you. Check before you order, and if permission is refused, you get your money back including any engraving.
• 60 day guarantee on the plaque. Not happy with it, tell us within 60 days.
• If it is damaged or removed, we replace it, linked to the same page. Nothing you uploaded is lost.
• Your page is private by default. Not listed anywhere, and search engines cannot find it. Add a password if you would rather.
• The code is dynamic, meaning it can be repointed without re-cutting the plaque. That is the difference between a memorial that can survive a change of provider and one that cannot. We explain why it matters, and how to test any supplier on it, in how memorial QR codes work.
• Engraving is proofed before it is cut. We send it to you to approve, because it cannot be undone afterwards.

If you cannot face building the page yet, that is the ordinary case rather than the exception. Send us what you have and we will build it for you.