It was with considerable sadness that the news was received that, after a long illness, MW Bro., the Rt. Hon. Lord Farnham, Past Pro Grand Master, had died on 22 March. In Grand Lodge on 14 March, the MW. The Grand Master referred to him as ‘my trusty and much loved Pro Grand Master’ who ‘has served the Craft with great distinction, at home and abroad’, sentiments with which all who knew Lord Farnham would heartily agree.
    Born in 1931, after education at Eton and Harvard, and service as a Lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues), he entered the City as a merchant banker with Brown Shipley; he served as Chairman 1984-91. He was later to be Chairman of the Avon Rubber Company and of Provident Mutual Life Assurance. In 1957 he succeeded his grandfather as the 12th Baron Farnham, an Irish peerage dating back to 1756, and he inherited the family estate at Farnham, in County Cavan, in the Irish Republic.
    Lord Farnham was initiated in his family lodge in County Cavan. His professional life keeping him in London, he joined the Lodge of Erin, No. 2895 and, subsequently, the Lodge of Antiquity, No. 2, Royal Alpha Lodge, No. 16, and the Old Etonian Lodge, No. 4500. His service in Grand Lodge began in 1977 when he was appointed Senior Grand Warden, serving for two years. He was appointed Assistant Grand Master in 1982, followed by promotions to Deputy Grand Master in 1989, and Pro Grand Master in 1991.
    Three words characterise Lord Farnham’s service to Grand Lodge: reform, openness and family. As Assistant Grand Master he was responsible to the Grand Master for Freemasonry in London. Personal experience of the problems facing London Freemasonry led him to set up a representative Committee to examine its workings. That work was continued by his successor, RW Bro. the Earl of Eglinton and Winton, resulting
    in the London Report whose recommendations set the ground for the recent restructuring of London. As Pro Grand Master he was conscious that the management of the Craft at all levels was outdated and, like Topsy, had ‘just grew’d’. He set up, and Chaired, a Strategic Working Party, who’s recommendations led to the major reforms of the Board of General Purposes, its committees, the financial structures of Grand Lodge and the operations of the Grand Secretary’s office.
    With the major policy shift from intense privacy to openness, begun in 1984, Lord Farnham was a great supporter of the move to better informing the public as to the real nature of Freemasonry. That support was tempered by his recognition that privacy remained a virtue, demonstrated by his public support for the individual Freemason’s right not to be forced into declaring his membership by an outside agency and his insistence that the details of our ceremonies were not for public view.
    He firmly believed that to fully enjoy his Freemasonry the individual needed the support of his partner and family. On a number of occasions he reminded the Craft that time and money spent of Freemasonry was ‘family time and family money’. A supporter of the involvement of the family in the social side of Freemasonry, on the many occasions he represented the Grand Master at home and abroad. Whilst happy to attend formal meetings, he much preferred social events where he could meet ordinary brethren and their families, believing that such events gave him a greater opportunity ‘to take the pulse of the Craft’ and properly fulfil his duties as Pro Grand Master and principal advisor to the Grand Master. As his obituary in The Daily Telegraph described him: ‘In an intensely hierarchical milieu he had a gift for dealing at all levels on equal terms, and was universally liked. A tall, upright, handsome figure, he carried his ceremonial duties with impeccable Masonic dignity’.
    John M Hamill