Hello Dstew,
Number 15 Cann Hall Road, Leytonstone, London E11 3HY, appears to be currently St. Catherine’s, a nursing home. According to the webpage it was registered in 1988 but maybe there was something there prior to that. If he was in some sort of care facility, and family were still keeping an eye on him, then any death notice may have been in the newspaper where he previously lived.
http://www.housingcare.org/downloads/fa ... ngland.pdfIt’s only a very small establishment, maybe you could contact them for information about whether they were around in some form in 1977 and if so, whether they still hold records of where he was buried or the name of the funeral director. In the 1960s there was a St Catherine’s Church in Leytonstone. Possibly the one you can see just up the road from where number 15 is supposed to be.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en ... =UTF8&om=1I saw the name before and checked the Times for RS but couldn’t see anything, but that newspaper is inclined to be a bit elitist.
Hope that helps,
Alan