Jenner – the Stamp of Genius

On 2 March 1999 the Royal Mail issued a series of stamps to celebrate a millennium of British achievement. The 20p stamp honours Dr Edward Jenner, from Berkeley, in the Masonic Province of Gloucestershire. 200 years ago, Jenner discovered that vaccination with the harmless cowpox disease gave protection against the deadly smallpox. Following the publication of his research in 1798, W Bro Jenner’s pioneering work on vaccination would save millions of lives throughout the world. The stamp, designed by The Times’ political cartoonist Peter Brookes, shows Jenner in silhouette, administering the first vaccination against smallpox to eight year old James Phipps on May 14, 1796, cleverly combined with the body of a large cow.
    Born in 1749, the son of the vicar of Berkeley, Jenner was a natural historian as well as physician, classifying specimens brought back from Captain Cook’s 1771 voyage to the South Seas. Apprenticed to a doctor at Chipping Sodbury, he heard a girl say, “I cannot take smallpox, for I have had the cowpox.” The statement stirred his genius and after many years study, he conducted the first human experiments with vaccination in 1796.
    Jenner sent the cowpox virus with a book of instructions to the Five Nations of North America, in return for which their chiefs gave him a wampum belt and a message, declaring that “they would teach their children to lisp the name Jenner in blessing until the Great Spirit should gather all their generations to Himself.” According to Freemasonry in Gloucestershire. The Formative Years 1738-1880 by DF Wyatt, Jenner valued the belt as highly as his Fellowship of the Royal Society and wore it over his apron at the last masonic meeting he attended.
    Jenner was initiated into what would become the Royal Berkeley Lodge of Faith and Friendship No 449, still very much an active lodge. The lodge received its first legal warrant in 1802, entrusted to thirteen brethren, including Dr Edward Jenner and Viscount Dursley, heir to the Earl of Berkeley. Having a high proportion of university-educated men among its members, the lodge functioned as a local learned society with monthly papers being given on scientific subjects in the presence of non-masons before the lodge was opened. One minute of 1803 records that “the chair of Science was taken by Dr Edward Jenner who read an ingenious paper on The harmony of surrounding Natural Objects.” Dr Jenner was exalted in April 1805 in Hope and Sincerity Chapter No 134 and became Master of his Lodge in 1812, aged 63 of which lodge he was a regular attender, particularly in later years, whereof a biographer wrote: “I have seen him after his renown had filled the world and after the many cares attendant on Vaccination had often weighed heavily upon him, shake them entirely off and take up a humorous vein singing one of his old ballads with all the mirth and gaiety of his youthful days.”
    On 17 February 1823, according to The Provincial Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire by W Bro George Norman (1911), at a meeting of Berkeley Lodge immediately after Jenner’s death, the Worshipful Master, Bro HJ Shrapnell, expressed his inability to express his sorrow at the passing of a man of “many great and exalted virtues, and of the sincere and affectionate regret with which they deplored the loss of him who had for so many years been one of the firmest supports of the Lodge, and who had so often contributed to the scientific entertainment and to the social hours of our meetings... As a Brother and a Mason his memory must ever live amongst us as that of one truly worthy of imitation. Even to his latest hours he was employed in acts of Charity, and now that he is no more, his wide benevolence shines with the purest rays of Masonic splendour. Relatives and friends, members of this Lodge, with very many others, will mourn the loss of so true and constant a friend. Happy will it be for all of us if only in a minor degree the ‘tongue of good report’ remains with our memories as it must ever rest with his.”
    Thanks to the brethren, a memorial in Gloucester Cathedral was completed in 1825: a fine statue by Sievier, now at the west end of the nave. The single word, JENNER, at its base testifies to a great public benefactor and a loving-hearted Mason.
    Those interested in learning more about Jenner may wish to visit the Jenner Museum (managed by Malcolm Beeson) at the house in Berkeley where Jenner’s ground-breaking work was carried out.
    In addition to the 20p stamp, the millennium series also includes a 43p stamp in honour of the work of Sir Alexander Fleming, who developed penicillin in 1928. Fleming was also a keen Freemason.

Good news as Martyn Lewis chairs MTGB Millennium Project launch

Former BBC television newscaster Martyn Lewis took the chair at the official launch of the Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys’ £7.5m millennium project at Grand Temple on June 23.
    The project, details of which were outlined in the Spring issue of Freemasonry Today, is aimed at equipping children’s hospices in England and Wales with information technology to enable sick youngsters to communicate with their friends and family. Called Lifelites, the scheme is being assisted by computer experts from the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.
    Leslie Hutchinson of the MTGB said about 300 guests attended the launch and widespread media interest was generated. The MTGB has produced a range of Lifelites merchandise, about which please contact W Bro Leslie Hutchinson at 31, Great Queen St.

Erasmus Darwin Centre opens in Lichfield

The life and work of the physician, scientist, inventor, poet, philosopher, botanist – and Freemason – Erasmus Darwin (1732-1802) is celebrated at a beautiful ‘new’ centre sited close to Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire. Opened to the public in April, the Erasmus Darwin Centre was once the home of the great man himself. The building itself is a very fine example of 18th century town-house architecture, constructed on an earlier frame and lovingly restored under the auspices of local architect Peter Brownhill and others, with funding coming from the European Regional Development Fund, the National Heritage Fund of the Lottery and private donations administered by the expert members of the Erasmus Darwin Foundation (Chairman: Dr Gordon Cook). Darwin House is owned by the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral, one of whose canons, the Rev Tony Barnard, has been energetic in making the Centre an educational resource for people of all ages. While the Centre aims at being the centre for academic studies of Darwin, great emphasis has been placed on making its exhibits accessible to children, with a strong ‘hands-on’ and interactive approach.
    Erasmus Darwin, Fellow of the Royal Society (as was Freemason Elias Ashmole 1617-1692 – a Founder of that Society) and a pioneer of researches into evolution brought to completion by his famous grandson Charles Darwin, began his career as a physician in Lichfield in 1756. He was soon regarded as the finest physician of his time. Darwin was a leading light of the famous Lunar Society which met in Birmingham at the time of the full moon, and whose members included Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton and James Watt (1736-1819), another Freemason, initiated in 1763. Darwin himself was initiated at the St David’s Lodge No 36, Edinburgh in 1754 at a time when Edinburgh was a centre for enlightenment and medical knowledge. He was also a member of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge No 2. Darwin was also a friend of Freemason Benjamin Franklin and supported the American Revolution.
    Erasmus Darwin was the author of epoch-marking books on botanical and biological science such as Phytologia (which made great advances in the understanding of photosynthesis and plant nutrition), The Temple of Nature, Zoonomia (which advocated a theory of biological evolution) and his extraordinary study of plants – in verse – The Botanic Garden (1792). This work begins with a declaration that its structure rested poetically on the Rosicrucian understanding of the spirits of the elements (sylphs/air; undines/water; salamanders/fire and gnomes/earth). The Botanic Garden included engravings by the visionary artist, William Blake (1757-1827). Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Darwin “the first literary character in Europe”. In addition to his literary expertise, Darwin also made experiments to understand vapours and steam. He was the first to explain how clouds form and how artesian wells rise and, polymath that he was, asked his friend Matthew Boulton to aid in the construction of what would have been the first steam carriage. Boulton and Watt were of course pioneers of Britain’s Industrial Revolution.
    If ever there was a man who took the Second Degree charge to study ‘the hidden mysteries of nature and science’ seriously, it was Erasmus Darwin, a great example of the mind which ever reaches into the unknown in order to locate useful and healing knowledge.
    It is to be hoped that among future studies of Darwin to be undertaken in concert with the Centre, there will be an opportunity for someone to explain how it was that so many men of ingenuity in his time came to embrace the universal promise of Freemasonry, a factor as yet unrecognised by the Erasmus Darwin Centre. It is also to be hoped that Freemasons themselves will again come to see in its fullness how the Craft stands at the interface between spirit and practice for the benefit of humankind, as much in art and science as in charity.
    T.C.

Province of Cornwall backs Openness

Over 700 brethren recently attended the Masonic Province of Cornwall’s annual meeting, whose theme was Openness in the Craft. The Provincial Grand Master, Nicholas Barrington, said members should share and spread the virtues of Freemasonry, its beliefs, privileges, happiness and friendships. In 2002 the Province would be celebrating its 250th Anniversary (there are now some 4,500 members in the county) and had much to be proud of. For example, the Hospice Project, started in 1984, had given over £2m to 178 hospices throughout England and Wales. Other recent beneficiaries of masonic charity included the Cheshire Home, the Salvation Army and the Cornwall Air Ambulance, while a collection taken at the meeting raised £1000 for the joint Western Morning News-Oxfam appeal to help the Kosovar refugees.
    Answering continued media criticism, Mr Barrington declared: “The media, especially on a national basis, gives encouragement to the public that there is a perception of Masonry that people are on the make and looking after each other to the detriment of everyone who is not a Freemason. We of course know that that is not true, and is in fact, a lie. I hope that being involved in Freemasonry and thus sharing those benefits will be helpful to families, employment and our respect for everyone in the community.” Freemasonry, added the Provincial Grand Master, is a way of life to be enjoyed and involved “kindness in the home, honesty in business, courtesy in society, fairness in work, pity and concern for the unfortunate, resistance towards the wicked, help for the weak, trust in the strong, forgiveness for the penitent, love for one another and, above all, reverence and love for God.”
    W Bro Douglas Williams MBE, Penzance, Cornwall.

Guardian calls Craft ‘Secret Society’

The clear message that the United Grand Lodge of England is not a secret society does not seem to have penetrated the newsrooms of the Guardian newspaper. An article by Home Affairs Editor, Alan Travis (4 May 1999) reports that “Police officers and crown prosecutors face being forced by law to disclose their membership of the freemasons and other secret societies after attempts to get them to register voluntarily have flopped.” The writer is concerned to show that a large number of brethren in these occupations have been unwilling to declare membership, the which declaration had been stipulated by the Lord Chancellor to be voluntary. It would appear to be the case that Chris Mullin MP, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, and Home Secretary Jack Straw will, if ultimately dissatisfied with the number of declarations, wish to remove the voluntary nature of declaration and enforce disclosure. Such a measure would contradict the words of the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, as expressed to John Maples MP in a letter responding to the concerns of Bro IM Fothergill regarding disclosure: “In arriving at its decision the Government had to balance the privacy of individual members of the judiciary against the fact that they do, as servants of the Crown, operate in the public domain. For serving members of the judiciary, the Lord Chancellor was however anxious to ensure that the declaration should be voluntary.” Regardless even of this, candidates for offices as JPs, prison officers &c will be asked at interview for such posts whether or not they are Freemasons, making a practical nonsense out of the ‘voluntary’ nature of declaration on forms sent out earlier this year to the police and judiciary.
    The position of the government would appear to be deficient in logic. Lord Irvine writes in his letter to John Maples MP (11 February 1999): “An affirmative answer to the question about membership of the Freemasons on the new application form is not a relevant consideration in determining a candidate’s personal suitability to become a magistrate.” If that is so, why insist on disclosure at interview? The answer is given that it is to assuage ‘public concern’, without having established whether there is justification for such concern. The logical anomaly clearly derives from the prejudice involved in the whole issue and as FMT has maintained consistently, that prejudice derives not from a ‘public concern’ but from the political and journalistic interests of the chairman of the home affairs committee, who is quoted by Alan Travis in the Guardian as having said that: “Were the masons to co-operate, they would dispel a lot of illusions. By not co-operating they create the impression that they have something to hide, which is not necessarily the case.” Not necessarily the case...?
    Government officials continue to fail to understand why some masons are against disclosure. As Bro Fothergill writes in a letter to FMT, it is a question of “discrimination”, since, as the Lord Chancellor informed Bro Fothergill’s MP: “There is no intention to extend these arrangements to include any other political, religious or social affiliations.” Bro Julian Rees, responding to the Guardian article, asserts that it is not a question of masons having anything to hide but of “simply preserving the right of every free man to free thought without the interference of the state.” Bro Peter Rance has hit the nail on the head of the issue by sending to FMT a declaration form issued by Essex County Council headed “Disclosure of membership of secret societies including the Freemasons.” Again, we see local government following the state’s lead and branding the Craft with the demonstrably false ‘secret society’ conspiratorial label. Bro Rance asks the pertinent question - which the government refuses to take on board: “Does the new Act of Parliament now being enforced by the Essex County Council mean a Freemason, with many years service as an Army Officer, a Councillor and Headmaster, has been politically reclassified as a subversive citizen?” The Inquisition cometh.

Clerkenwell Open House

On the morning of Saturday 18 September between 10am and 1pm, the London Masonic Centre, based at the Old Sessions House, Clerkenwell, will again be participating in “London Open House”, an annual event organised by the Guardian newspaper and the government department responsible for the preservation of historic buildings.
    On the weekend of 18/19 September, about 400 buildings in London not normally open to the public will participate in the Open House event. Last year, the London Masonic Centre’s volunteer guides showed about 120 people around the Old Sessions House on the Saturday morning. Admission is free and light refreshments will be available for sale. The Old Sessions House is situated on the Clerkenwell Historic Trail, some parts of which date back to 1140 and earlier.
    If you would like to volunteer as a guide, please contact Dennis Brown, Director of CLMC Ltd on 0171 250 1212.
    Incidentally, there is a splendid new book, The Old Sessions House, A History of the London Masonic Centre by Len Cacutt, recently published by the Centre. 124 pages long, beautifully printed with black and white and colour plates, the book tells the fascinating story of the building and its ancient environs and goes on to look at the future of Masonry at the Centre. All those interested in London Masonry will enjoy this hard-cover book, which can be obtained by calling at the Centre (12 noon-8.30pm) or by postal application to Dennis Brown at the Old Sessions House, Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R ONA. The cost is £9.95 (plus £2 p&p, £5 for overseas orders), while cheques should be made payable to CLMC Ltd. The e mail address is mason@sessionshouse.co.uk The centre also has a website: www.London-lodges.org/Clerkenwell

Grand Charity Aid to Kosova reaches £100,000

Grand Charity has quadrupled its donation to the Kosova refugees appeal to £100,000.
    An initial emergency grant of £25,000 to the British Red Cross’s emergency appeal was announced shortly after the crisis flared up. Then, at the Annual Investiture held on April 28, the Grand President, HRH The Duke of Kent, announced a further donation of £75,000.
    The additional donation will be used by the Red Cross for the purchase of kits to support the health and well-being of 7,500 Kosovar babies whose families have been made homeless by the war.
    Previously, details of grants totalling nearly £6 million had been given to members of the Grand Charity at their annual meeting on March 10. Members were told that the Council had earmarked a further £1 million to support projects to commemorate the millennium, bringing the total to £2 million. News of where the millennium money is to go will be given at a later meeting.
    Other donations included: £761,802 to refresh the Province of Middlesex’s depleted charitable trust; £700,000 to the Province of Gloucestershire towards the cost of a sheltered housing project; £210,000 to the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution towards the cost of a new home for people for mental disabilities or learning problems at Thorne, near Doncaster; £300,000 to Refuge, the charity that cares for domestic violence victims, to support a 24-hour National Crisis Line.
    Recent President’s Emergency Grants included £10,000 to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Northamptonshire to help with the aftermath of floods, and £10,000 to the British Red Cross to help provide relief to flood victims in Bangladesh.

250th Anniversary Fund supports Research

Readers of the first issue of FMT will recall that the Grand Lodge 250th Anniversary Fund was created in 1967 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 and that it was funded by the contribution of £1 per head by all members of the Craft. The sole purpose of the Fund was to assist, by the giving of an annual grant, research into the science of surgery by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
    The Fund raised an initial capital sum in excess of £500,000, which today is worth about £3.7m. Since its inception, the Trustees have made grants of some £2.3m to the Royal College of Surgeons and the grant that they have just approved for 1999 is £155,000.
    Most of the Fund’s annual grant to the College is spent on funding Freemasons’ Research Fellowships to young surgeons, permitting them to explore specific areas of surgical research. Four of the current holders of Fellowships are covering such diverse areas as new micro-surgical techniques; the easing of the effects of artherosclerosis (arterial disease) by new by-pass procedures; improved therapies for the treatment of aneurysm rupture and the diagnosing and treatment of disorders believed to be caused, particularly amongst young male farm workers, to the bone structure through the use of organophosphate chemicals in sheep dips.
    The Grand Master, HRH The Duke of Kent KG, agreed some 15 months ago to become the Fund’s patron and in this capacity he last October visited the headquarters of the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, where he was greeted by the President of the College, Mr Barry Jackson and by the Chairman of the Fund, Lord Eglinton. During his visit, the Grand Master met several holders of Freemasons’ Research Fellowships and showed a lively interest in their work.
    At a time when the Craft is anxious to show to the world at large that Freemasonry is not solely concerned with promoting its own interests, the Grand Lodge 250th Anniversary Fund is an excellent example of the use of masonic charity for the general good.
    W Bro Barry O’Meara, JGD, Secretary of the 250th Anniversary Fund

Consecration in Finland

FMT has received the following report from W Bro Michael G Franklin, Immediate Past Master of Union Lodge 134, Helsinki:
    “We are soon to have an English-speaking Chapter here in Helsinki using the Aldersgate Ritual Book. Unity Chapter (its new name) will be consecrated on Wednesday 29 September 1999 at 6pm at the Temple of Concordant Bodies, Liisankatu 17, 00171 Helsinki. The Consecrating Officer will be Grand Z Rolf Kristofersson along with other Grand Chapter Officers. There will be three Convocations each year: 31 January 2000, 29 May 2000 and 29 September 2000 (Installation). Any English Companions who would like to attend will be most welcome. Further details may be obtained from Scribe E Designate, Mika Pohjanpola, e mail: Mika.Pohjanpola,@.KOLUMBAS FI or Tel: 358 050 2008; Fax: 358 9 6123107.
    “I am the only Englishman to be one of the 14 Founders taking up the office of Designate Principal Sojourner. As a point of interest, to belong to a Finnish Chapter, you first have to be a Mark Mason. I personally am not, but because I was a member of Prince Henry the Navigator Chapter 9360, I was allowed to become involved. I was always under the impression that Chapter was basically a continuation of the Third Degree ie: finding the lost secrets. So I find Finland’s stipulation odd.
    “The Grand Master of Finland, the MW Bro Pentti Somerto, has retired, aged 75, basically on medical grounds, and is currently in hospital suffering from pneumonia. The new Grand Master of Finland is the MW Bro Ilkka Runakagas. On Tuesday 18 May 1999, the Grand Master conducted the Installation of Estonia’s first Grand Master in Tallin, the MW Bro Arno Köörna, who was formerly the Deputy District GM (Estonia Division) under the Grand Lodge of Finland.”

The York Minster St. William Window Millennium Appeal

The Freemasons of the Province of Yorkshire, North and East Ridings are well aware of the significance of York Minster, not only to the county, country and internationally, but also to Freemasonry. Within its walls are many reminders of Freemasonry, whether in the masons’ marks of our operative forebears, an actual tracing board to assist in the design and building of a window frame or in the windows themselves, many of which contain masonic acknowledgements of the part played by Freemasons in supporting freedom and preserving their heritage. Yorkshire Freemasonry has long been associated with the Minster. An earlier Grand Master, the Earl of Scarbrough, was the High Steward of the Minster and for many years was closely associated with its restoration.
    When our Provincial Grand Master, His Honour Judge Gerald Coles QC sought a major project to mark the Millennium, it was therefore natural that he welcomed the opportunity of continuing the tradition of caring for the ancient glass of the Minster, particularly when he became aware that there was need to restore the great St William Window - the largest unrestored window in the Minster, which records the life and miracles of York’s Patron Saint and which is acknowledged to be a treasure of international importance.He announced the project at the meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge on the 18th May 1996.
    St. William or William Fitzherbert as he then was, was a Norman who lived in England during the turbulent century after the Conquest. He was the grandson of William the Conqueror and nephew of Henri de Blois, who was both Bishop of Winchester and Papal Legate and who therefore shared Church patronage with the King. William was first elected Archbishop of York in 1141, but most of the influential leaders of the religious orders opposed his election, apparently because of his royal connections, his influence with the Pope and his life style. Before he could be enthroned, the Pope died and William’s hopes faded. Henry Murdac was appointed in his stead and William shrewdly took an extended vacation, finding refuge most notably on Sicily where another relative happened to be King. In 1153, Henry Murdac and the Pope both died and William was restored to the Chair of York.
    The Window has great iconographic significance and is arguably second only in quality and importance to the Minster’s great East Window of John Thornton. Some of the panes of the St William Window were almost certainly created by Thornton also and the rest were probably executed in his workshop. It was presented to the Minster in about 1421 by the de Ros family of Helmsley Castle. It is divided into 100 square panels, each one metre square, of which 5 panels are blank, and is crowned with a beautiful tracery. The workmanship is lively and often amusing, depicting much of interest to medieval studies of costume and medicine. Restoration is in the very capable hands of the York Glaziers’ Trust, experts of the highest calibre.
    The Province of Yorkshire, North and East Ridings has committed itself to pay the Trust a total sum of £350,000, being the cost of restoring the glass and lead-work, between the announcement of the scheme and the Millennium. The Grand Charity was an early supporter of the project, setting off the appeal with a “kick start” of £25,000. This generosity was much appreciated and it has already been decided that sponsorship of the Tracery above the Window should be awarded to the Grand Charity. A small committee was formed to undertake the task. Being a smallish Province of 92 Craft Lodges, including Lodges of Installed Masters, it was decided that the Window lent itself to sponsorship on a panel per lodge basis. Sponsorship of a panel at £4000 each has been popular and a number of lodges have now one and sometimes two panels allocated to them. Many of our 53 Chapters have responded with alacrity and are working their way through a whole row of panels, earning their own particular recognition in the Window for posterity at a sponsorship of £400 per Chapter.
    Wide support has also been forthcoming from other Orders in the Province. The Rose Croix have sponsored two panels and the Mark, Knights Templar and Knights Templar Priests have each sponsored a panel.
    The Dean and Chapter of the Minster have been a great source of support and assistance. The Dean suggested those who completed a sponsorship might be pleased to have their banner or emblem hand painted in the quarries in the panels of the window, hitherto blank. The suggestion was accepted with enthusiasm. For our part, we intend to prepare a Presentation Volume for inclusion in the Minster Library (with a reference copy in the Minster Shop) and the Archives of Provincial Grand Lodge.
    A Thanksgiving Service has already been arranged for Saturday the 9th September 2000 to be followed by a buffet lunch. The Dean and the Archbishop of York will take part, together with a number of dignitaries, masonic and otherwise.
    Thomas Henry Wood PSGD, Assistant Provincial Grand Master, PGL Yorkshire North and East Ridings