Essex

Congratulations to W Bro John Hainsworth of Templewood Lodge No 7424 (Southend-on-Sea) on completing his charity walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats for the Festival 2000 in support of the RMBI. John averaged over 17 miles a day - no mean feat for a young man - but even more impressive considering John is a 67 year old grandfather!

Hampshire and Isle of Wight

In March 1999 tickets will go on sale (at around £4.50) for an Old Tyme Music Hall show at the Apollo Theatre, Newport, Isle of Wight (23-25 September 1999). All the artistes, musicians and helpers will be volunteer masons. Profits will be shared equally between the Apollo Theatre ( a non-masonic charity) and the Province’s New Masonic Samaritan Fund 2005 Festival. Tickets will be available from W Bro R Potter at “Wavecrest”, Galley Lane, Brighstone, Isle of Wight PO30 4BS and W Bro D Russell at “Seagulls”, 35 Beachfield Rd. Bembridge, Isle of Wight PO35 5TN. The event is being organised by the Island and Cosham groups under the auspices of those groups’ Assistant Provincial Grand Master, W Bro George Davies (the Province has 255 lodges divided into 12 groups). The same group of 16 craft lodges recently raised £9,000 in one year for the Island Hospital’s MRI Scanner and £7,000 for the local hospice. FMT wishes the Apollo event all the success it so richly deserves.

Lancashire

Last September, Dutchman Bro Albert Vervest visited his daughter Renee (now resident in Liverpool). By chance he was introduced to a West Lancashire mason. The result was that on 17 June, 11 members of the Royal Victoria Lodge No 1013 were touring The Hague’s Masonic Cultural Centre, ending with a visit to The Via Lucis Lodge No 161 of the Grand East of the Netherlands. Brethren witnessed an Installation ceremony and Festival of St John the Evangelist in Dutch (brethren were given an English guide). Dave Wood (Senior Warden) was delighted to see the universality of the Craft while noting “some startling differences” such as the practice of giving white roses to brethren as part of the Festival of S.John. “The irony of the Festive Board being conducted in what had been a wartime bunker was not lost on anybody who shared in this wonderful event.” says Bro Wood. A return visit by Via Lucis Lodge has been planned to coincide with the Royal Victoria’s Installation next February. The masonic bond of friendship is alive and well.

London

Lodge of Humility with Fortitude No 229 celebrated its Bi-Centenary on 30 June in the presence of the R W Assistant Grand Master The Most Honourable the Marquess of Northampton DL (below, left), who presented the Bi-Centenary Warrant. First consecrated by military personnel of the East India Company in the presence of Samuel Middleton, Provincial GM of Bengal and Director of Fortifications & Works, at Fort William, Calcutta in February 1773, the lodge decided to become a London lodge in 1963, since when it has flourished with 39 members and a half dozen prospective members in the pipeline. Past Master Madhu Trivedi informed FMT of a number of customs peculiar to the lodge: “During the Carnatic War (1781-85), silence was observed in the evenings so that enemies were not alerted. Consequently, there is no “quick-fire” at the Festive Boards. When the lodge re-assembled after that war, the brethren were so overcome at the Tyler’s Toast at finding their numbers so severely depleted, they sat down and the toast was drunk in silence. This has been the custom ever since that time”. Those interested in a Brief History of this historic Indian Lodge should contact W Bro Trivedi at “Ambica Cottage”, 35 Hall Rd. East Ham, London E6 2NG.

New York

An interesting article by David Van Biema appeared in the magazine Time on May 25 of this year. The by-line asks “Freemasons, who used to be blamed for everything, now seem almost quaint. Can a youth movement rescue them?” It contained interesting facts about the Craft in the colonies, such as masonic historian William Moore’s comment that colonial lodges offered “a civil space in which to play with self-rule in a world where democracy was not yet a fact.” With Masonry playing such a key role in US history (14 Presidents have been members), the article sought reasons for the US Craft’s difficulty in replacing deceased members who had joined in the egalitarian spirit of post-war America. His answer can be encapsulated in two words: The Sixties: “John Wayne was a Mason, which meant the protest generation wasn’t.” But things appear to be changing. According to John Chang, 39, a member of New York’s Independent Royal Arch Lodge No 2, and a man active in local Democratic politics: “Maybe now that my generation is getting a little bit more established with families, they’re getting interested in organisations that are beholden to certain moral values.” Fellow No 2 member John Hilliard, 52, makes a further point: “This elusive male bonding that people try to recover sitting in sweat lodges and drumming, the Masons have had it for generations. They never lost it.” The writer closes his article with a pertinent question, albeit couched in journalese: “Can the secret handshake ever be made hip again?”

Norfolk and Suffolk

Norfolk and Suffolk masons recently held a Sunday Lunch at Risbygate Club in Bury St Edmunds. Aided by gifts and donations from local firms, the masons raised a smashing £2,604 for Quidenham Children’s Hospice.

North Yorkshire

Maurice Beazley of Redcar would like it to be known that the Masonic Philatelic Club will meet on the second Saturday in November at Freemasons’ Hall, 60 Gt Queen St. London. Annual subs are £7.00 UK, £8.50 Overseas and an excellent magazine is issued to members four times a year. Active members have widened the hobby far beyond stamps - postal history, old summonses, masonic postcards are of interest to members from areas as diverse as the USA, Australasia, Europe and the Middle and Far East. There are over 4,000 stamps which bear the image of Freemasons and many more show masonic symbols, albeit for other reasons. For more information, contact Maurice Beazley at 216 West Dyke Rd. Redcar, N.Yorks. TS10 4JS (Tel: 01642 472133) with an SAE (9x6) for a generous starter pack.

Nottinghamshire

Secretary of the Jewels of the Craft Study & Collectors Circle, Martin Haywood, informs FMT that an AGM took place in Birmingham in May, preceded by a swap meeting and auction, at which hundreds of masonic jewels found new homes. New members (of a recognised constitution) are most welcome to join. Contact Bro Haywood at 5, Brackenfield Rise, Ravenshead, Nottingham NG15 9EP. Tel: 01623 797077. Net: 101762.315@compuserve.com

Shropshire

There are now some 30-40 Round Table Lodges throughout England and Wales, and every two years a number of these lodges get together for a social weekend. The latest reunion was hosted by The Shropshire Round Table Lodge No 9104 at the Madeley Court Hotel, Ludlow. At the Festival Service, held at Tong Parish Church, and led by the Provincial Grand Chaplain Rev Francis Smyth, W Bro Roy Street conducted the Shropshire Masonic Choir. The Shropshire Round Table Lodge was honoured by the presence of three Provincial Grand Masters, two Deputy Provincial Grand Masters and eleven other Grand Officers, all Round Tablers.

Somerset

Connaught Lodge 3573 believe their Tyler, Jack Mills (below), holds the record for long service at over 62 glorious years, having been appointed Tyler at his initiation in February 1936. Born on 19 July 1903, he joined his father at the coal face of the Somerset pits at age 12 where he worked until 1959 when two heart attacks led him to employment in a local hardware store. Music is his great interest. Jack played piano accompaniment to silent films at the Palladium Cinema in Midsomer Norton, his home, at the age of 14. He has also played in dance bands, sang in a prize-winning quartet and recently retired as organist for Methodist churches after 70 years in the post. A treasured memory is that of having sung in a massed choir at the Royal Albert Hall in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary for Empire day in 1935. Having retired from providing organ music for two other lodges, Jack continues to play piano at Connaught festive boards. He has recently been promoted to Past Provincial Grand Superintendent of Works. Jack’s current Worshipful Master regards this Tyling Legend as “an example and inspiration to us all.”

Surrey

W Bro Philip Bennison received accolades from The Times’ special sports correspondent in July when he won the Queen’s Prize, the world’s leading target rifle award. W Bro Bennison, a chartered surveyor and member of the Old Epsomian Lodge No 3561, hit the bull’s eye every time over the two final stages of the contest, finishing with 300 points: the highest possible score and the first time in the 137 year history of the National Rifle Association that anybody has achieved this astonishing distinction. To rapturous applause W Bro Bennison was carried from the scene of his triumph by his team-mates in the NRA’s victor’s chair. Peter M Dodd, Secretary of the Old Epsomian Lodge, told FMT that the whole lodge was “very proud” of their sporting hero and noted that The Times omitted to mention that the badge was presented to W Bro Bennison by Lord Swansea, Provincial Grand Master for South Wales, Eastern Division, and himself a well known target rifle shooter.

Warwickshire

The Mayor of Leamington Spa, Councillor Balvinder Gill became one of the many recipients of masonic generosity when he received a cheque for £500 towards flood relief from the Provincial Grand Master, RW Bro Stanley A Lates. Other beneficiaries of Warwickshire’s extensive charity work include The Birmingham Children’s Hospital (who received £250,000 on 12 June) and The Royal National Lifeboat Institution. In presenting a certificate of thanks to the Provincial Grand Master on 20 May, Mrs Jill Carter (Chairman of the Sutton Coldfield Branch of the RNLI) said: “It is gratifying to know that our work commands the support of the Warwickshire Freemasons and there will be a number of people in the area who perhaps owe their lives to this generous act.” Incidentally, the Annual Meeting of Warwickshire Freemasons held on 9 July, celebrated 270 years of Freemasonry in the Province, while a provisional date of Saturday 5 December 1998 has been set for the consecration of the new Stanley Lates Lodge, named in honour of the Provincial Grand Master of Warwickshire.

Bro David R Boston, currently Deputy Great Marshal in the Knights Templar and (just) past acting Senior Warden of the province, has just finished moving his shop, Light & Boston to larger premises at 32 New John Street West, Newton, Birmingham so that customers can visit more easily. There is a new showroom where Freemasonry Today can be obtained, and where visitors can browse the extended range of books, jewellery and glassware. They’re open from 8.30am – 4.30pm Mon – Fri.

Meanwhile, at the Annual Meeting of the Provincial Priory of Warwickshire (Masonic Templars) on 30 May, the sum of £1,250 was presented to Dr Charles Gwynn, Commander of St John Ambulance in the West Midlands, for the use of the St John Ophthalmic Hospital in Jerusalem. Helping some 55,000 patients and performing 4,500 major operations each year, the hospital (established in 1882) continues the tradition of The Order of St John “In the service of Mankind.” Over the past five years the Masonic of Knights Templar have donated some £300,000 from across England and Wales to the St John Ophthalmic Hospital.