FT: Hm, I seem to recall a specific instruction from my ramper days to load coffins so that the body would travel head first.
I wonder ... in the UK the standard practise is always 'feet first'. This means that a coffin in a hearse has the feet in the middle of the vehicle with the head at the back. Whenever the body is carried, it is with the feet first. I think this stems from the religious idea that the dead will see the sun rise on the morning of resurrection or something.
Whatever the origins, this has now been so accepted into British society that it is seen as disrespectful to carry a corpse other than feet first.