Phylip De La Maziere de Gers, a one-time Merseyside disc jockey and butcher now turned professional psychic and town crier – who can claim the possibility of being descended from a Knight Templar – is a Second Degree Freemason who predicts the Craft’s future lies in its past.
    “Freemasonry preserves the old values and I find, as a psychic, people are returning to those values more and more. It seems to me that now a lot more people are aware that Freemasonry is here.”
    He continued: “Of course, there are critics but that is always the case when people don’t understand something. People are frightened of what they do not understand.”
    Now living near Wrexham, he has always been interested in matters which some would term paranormal. His mother was a medium at a Liverpool Spiritualist church, as was his grandmother throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
    He says psychic powers are not a gift, they are a “perfectly natural ability everyone possesses”. He added: “When we are born we all have this ‘radio set’ but because of the pressures of life our tuning goes astray. We can tune in if we want to, and some can do so much better than others.
    “There are certain characteristics that show if someone would be a good medium, and one is a love of ancient history. Mediums always seem to love everything about the past. Another characteristic is the willingness to listen.”
    He started using his psychic abilities when aged 15, undertaking psychic readings for his schoolmates in Liverpool, but had no thoughts of pursuing it as a career at that time.
    In fact, his chosen profession was to be that of a butcher. Then, around the same time as his Masonic initiation, the chance of obtaining a market booth came. With the full backing of his wife Jean, he took the plunge and turned professional, but still worked two days a week in his original trade.
    But what of the town crier?
    It was during Wrexham Melor Town Council’s “Fun Month” festivities in 1993 that a friend dared him to enter for the town crier competition.
    “That was it,” he said, “I won. From then I have not looked back and have enjoyed every minute of being a town crier.”
    His official duties now include being the Town Crier of Oswestry, plus Wittington and Prestatyn (he has relinquished his duties at Wrexham). In addition he represents Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Channel 4’s “Time Team”, Sky TV’s History Channel and the Hamner Arms Hotel, Hamner (possibly the only hostelry in the world to have its own official town crier).
    In addition he wears, among others, the coat of arms of the City of Belfast. It was during a visit to Belfast that he presented the city with a town crier’s bell.
    He said to the Lord Mayor of the time that bells have traditionally been used to ring bad news, but when peace comes to the six provinces he will return and ring out the good news. As a result he was allowed to wear the coat of arms.
    And Baton Rouge? Said Phylip: “I was standing in for the town crier of Chester and an American came up to me in the street. At first he thought I was the Mayor. He told me he was from Baton Rouge and he asked me what being a town crier involved. That was that, and then later I received a letter from America asking me if I would be the official town crier of Baton Rouge.”
    As for the Time Team, he explained: “It’s simple really. I like the programme very much and wrote to them to say so. I also asked if I could wear their logo and it was agreed. Sky Television’s History Channel covers all aspects of the past and I enjoy that also, so I contacted them and asked them if I could be their official town crier, and they agreed.”
    The secret of being a good crier, he says, is not to shout. “If you shout too much then people can’t tell what you’re saying; it’s far better to talk clearly and enunciate.”
    His grandiose surname is certainly something to shout about, but he is modest over its origins and is not, he admitted, a usual Scouse appendage.
    “Apparently it stems from the Languedoc region of France” he explained. “It appears my ancestor was a Templar who came over at the time of one of the Crusades and settled in the Midlands. It is thought he came to Liverpool because King John wanted to transport troops to Ireland and chose Liverpool, but there is no proof of this. Apparently there is a brandy with the same name and I am keen to sample it . . .”
    He said it is always enjoyable when he does give an accurate reading and can possibly help someone. (I must admit that, when he asked me to shuffle a set of cards known as Psi Cards, and he laid them out in front of me, the brief personal reading he gave was uncannily accurate).
    “It’s like the time when I had a radio programme at Wrexham” he concluded, “and a lady phoned in asking for a request for her husband who had just had a heart by-pass operation and was recovering.
    “I picked up a Jim Reeves CD and pressed the play button. The track I played was ‘Adios Amigo, Adios My Friend.’ I should have seen that coming I suppose!”