Sullivan was musical, the son of a clarinettist, bandmaster and Professor of Wind Instruments at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall in Middlesex. After acquiring knowledge of English Church Music as a chorister in the Chapel Royal, Sullivan Jnr entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1856. Two years later he turned from a projected career as a pianist to conducting and composition while a student of the Leipzig Conservatoire. During this period, he became enamoured of the music of Schubert, returning to Leipzig in 1867 with Sir George Grove to discover the complete music for the Ballet Rosamunde, thought lost. Back in England he produced songs, choral and orchestral pieces. His reputation grew.
    On 11 April 1865 Sullivan was initiated into the Lodge of Harmony No 255 at the Greyhound Inn, Richmond (founded in 1785 by Thomas Dunkerley, a natural son of George II). Regrettably, the minute book for the period has been lost, but we have two recorded attendances for March 1869 and January 1870. We don’t know if he took office but he did become Grand Organist in 1887. He became a joining member of the Studholme Lodge No 1591 but again there is no record of him occupying the Chair. Arthur Sullivan was knighted in 1883 for his services to vocal, choral and orchestral music rather than for his excursion into light opera, regarded by many as a frivolous diversion.
    On 28 June 1886 The Arthur Sullivan Lodge No 2156 was consecrated in Manchester. Provincial brethren processed to the tune of a ‘Processional March’ by Sullivan which I have been unable to identify. The March was played by an orchestra augmented by members of Charles Halle’s Band! Both Sullivan and the PGM were elected Honorary Members at the meeting. On 15 March 1886 Sullivan wrote to Bro AH Williams from 1 Queens Mansions, Victoria Street, London:

Dear Sir and Brother, I am most grateful to have received so flattering a request from my Provincial brethren in Manchester. In reply I may say it will give me much pleasure to accede to their request in having a Masonic Lodge called by my name. I should have been pleased also to open the new lodge as they desire. But that is not possible as my professional and social engagements are both numerous and pressing. It is of course thoroughly understood that, in giving my name to the proposed new masonic Lodge, I am incurring no duties and responsibilities, and that my personal attendance is not expected. I must apologise for the long delay in giving you a reply but it is in consequence of pressure of work and ill health during the past few days. I am, Yours fraternally, Arthur Sullivan.

William Schwenk Gilbert was initiated into St Machar Lodge No 54 (Scottish Constitution) on 12 June 1871 while a Captain in the Aberdeenshire Militia, and later joined the Bayard Lodge No 1615 on 26 June 1876. He does not appear to have held office in either lodge. Gilbert was introduced to Sullivan in 1869 by Frederick Emes Clay while the composer was working on his oratorio The Prodigal Son. Clay, a brother initiate of the Lodge of Harmony, had been a fellow chorister at the Chapel Royal, was himself a composer of talent and worked as a clerk of the Treasury. In 1871, Gilbert and Sullivan collaborated for the first time on the opera Thespis, a failure. Two years later they were brought together again by Richard D’Oyly Carte, the manager of a small Soho theatre, and in 1875 enjoyed their first success with Trial by Jury.
    Both men were Exalted in Friends in Council Chapter No 1383 and perfected in the Bayard Rose Croix Chapter No 71. Gilbert resigned from this in 1879 and Sullivan in 1881. Sullivan was Organist for this Chapter for several years. Gilbert does not appear to have made any allusion to the Craft in any of the operas (with a possible brief reference in the libretto of The Grand Duke).
    Gilbert and Sullivan were very different in character. Sullivan, gentle and likeable, Gilbert the rapier wit, fond of poking fun at English characteristics and at the Establishment. They did not always show that ‘brotherly love and harmony which should, at all times, characterise Freemasons’! Their most celebrated quarrel was over the cost for The Gondoliers, £500 of the total £4000 for the 1889 Savoy Theatre production being for new carpets. Gilbert wrote to Sullivan (who sided with D’Oyly Carte): “the time for putting an end to our partnership has at last arrived”. Nevertheless, two more G&S operas were produced, but neither The Grand Duke nor Utopia Limited enjoyed the success of their earlier work.

I should like to express my indebtedness for material supplied by the following : John Hamill and Library Staff at Freemasons’ Hall, The Master and Secretary of the Lodge of Harmony, and Bro David Hinton of the Arthur Sullivan Lodge in Manchester. Also Bro Biggs, the Secretary of the Bayard Lodge and Bro BG Clarke of the Allied Studholme Lodge. Nigel Banks of the Supreme Council of the Ancient & Accepted Rite has given me particulars of the careers of G&S in Rose Croix.