Charles Edward Keyser, 1853 - 1929, was a highly successful late Victorian businessman looking for a country seat when his sister, Agnes, drew his attention to Aldermaston Court which reminded her of Sandringham where she had been a guest. Offered for sale by auction at The Hind’s Head in the nearby village of Aldermaston, it comprised over 2500 acres of parkland, meadows and farms, and boasted a lake as well as a splendid mansion, making it an ideal purchase. Keyser grasped the opportunity, bid £160,000 and thus became Lord of the Manor of Aldermaston and Patron of the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin which stood just yards from his new home.
    The son of a stockbroker, Keyser had progressed from Eton to Cambridge where he read Law and acquired his MA; he was initiated into Isaac Newton University Lodge, No. 859, to commence what turned out to be a truly extraordinary masonic career. Turning aside from Law, he followed his father into the City where his energy and acumen built a fortune on his own account to match the one he later inherited. This wealth enabled him to pursue and distinguish himself in his chosen field becoming a published authority on English Church Architecture specialising in mediaeval churches.
    When he arrived at Aldermaston Court in 1893, Keyser, at 40, was a happily married man of benevolent disposition with a son and two daughters, moving easily and naturally into the role of the Squire. From the start he read the lessons each Sunday and later became Churchwarden, an office he held to the end of his life. Meanwhile there was much to be done. Essential structural work was put in hand at the Church and new oak seating installed for the comfort of the worshippers. Two of the village almshouses were rebuilt and a completely new Village Hall soon erected in a pleasing Tudor style but the master plan for the beautification of St Mary the Virgin would take longer to accomplish.
    There had been a Church at Aldermaston from Norman times and the building Keyser took in hand retained some stained glass from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries as well as traces of early wall paintings. To a man who ten years before had compiled a list of the buildings of Britain that contained mural paintings this constituted a challenge and an opportunity but the security of the building determined that the glass should take priority.
    Philip Harry Newman, a competent and experienced artist was recruited in 1895 to begin the work and he recovered thirteenth century medallions depicting The Annunciation and The Coronation of the Virgin from the former east window and reset them to form two new windows for the chancel. A second glassmaker, Charles Eamer Kempe, known in his lifetime as ‘The Master of Glass’, came on board and in 1897 - 98 created a focus for the devotions of the congregation in the form of representations of The Crucifixion, The Nativity and The Three Great Prophets, each in sections running across the triple lancet at the east end of the sanctuary. His other five contributions were The Adoration of the Magi, St Michael and Salutation of the Virgin, in the chancel together with St George and a splendid St Anne Instructing the Virgin in the nave.
    Alongside this work, Newman reset the fine armorial of Lords of the Manor in the Lady Chapel and made Abraham and Isaac as well as Adam Naming the Animals for the nave. In the choice of subjects used both men pay tribute to the historic dedication of the church while extending the scope for contemplation.
    Their Patron was also busy at this time getting elected to Berkshire County Council; taking on the duties of Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff as well as President of the Berkshire Archaeological Society and publishing an article about Aldermaston Church in a national Journal.
    The next year he became Founding Master of Aldermaston Lodge, No. 2760, which was consecrated at The Hind’s Head. The jewel struck to commemorate this event can be seen at The Museum of Freemasonry, Freemasons’ Hall, London. The lodge still meets regularly.
    Altogether Keyser was a subscribing member of thirty-six lodges, Past Master of twenty-four, including six of those he founded, yet still he found time for many other orders. By the end of his life, he had completed sixty-one prodigiously active years in Freemasonry and risen to Grand Rank in Craft, Mark and Royal Arch. He became Provincial Grand Master for Hertfordshire in both Craft and Mark and was Inspector General in Rose Croix for what was then the Southern District of England. Perhaps his greatest Masonic achievement was becoming Supreme Grand Ruler in the Order of the Secret Monitor.
    Kempe having departed, it fell to Newman to complete the glazing project by putting Christ Giving Sight to the Blind, from Sulhampstead Church, into the vestry as well as resetting 8 Forster Armorials from the old east window and designing a completely new Covenant Between Laban and Jacob for the nave. The fabric now being watertight the way was open for phase two, the wall paintings, but a significant event took place first. Keyser proposed his trusted artist, Newman, as the second candidate in Aldermaston Lodge and his three ceremonies took place in July, August and September 1902.
    Brother Newman’s initiation had a profound effect on him: it stimulated a great flowering of inspiration for the seventeen paintings with which he clad the walls in various parts of the church over the next six years, by which time he was on the way to the chair of Aldermaston Lodge which he eventually occupied in 1911.
    Many of these works are conventional subjects like St Michael Warring Against the Vices, St Margaret, Allegory of Sacred Music which, while assisting devotion and pleasing the eye, imply no masonic connotation. Faith Hope and Charity extolled over the vestry arch and Let Your Light So Shine Before Men…. emblazoned on the north wall as a prompt to benevolence, might well strike a particular chord in masonic breasts. Royal Arch masons would doubtless examine the east side of the Lady chapel arch with special care when contemplating Newman’s interpretation of Moses Descending From Mt Horeb though the uninitiated would discern no special significance. However, Solomon Dedicating the Temple at Jerusalem is in a completely different category. Prominent on the north wall of the nave, it is huge, colourful and contemporary in style in contrast to the more tradition tenor of the others. Fresh from his ceremonies, Newman has shown King Solomon in glowing red robes at the moment recorded in I Kings 8.55 where, having completed his long prayer unto the Lord, he rose from the altar with his hands spread up to heaven and he stood and blessed the congregation of Israel with a loud voice.
    It is not difficult to identify the figure kneeling behind him as the Assistant High Priest who officiated at this dedication. Newman signed the painting on one of the scrolls in the lower right foreground and, pinning his heart firmly on his sleeve, added roundels beneath the painting, one showing the sacred volume complete with square and compasses, the other depicting the level and plumb-rule earlier used to villainous effect.
    Even this moving representation is eclipsed by Newman’s comprehensive decorations to the east wall of the sanctuary. Here above Kempe’s triple lancet east window we have a vision of Christ in Majesty, the Saviour ringed by the four evangelists characterised by an Angel a Lion, an Ox and an Eagle with Alpha and Omega symbols above. Mary, His mother, kneels on the left as does St John, the beloved disciple, on the right.
    Beneath St John is a panel containing a dozen male saints and martyrs including His earthly father Joseph, wearing a conspicuously Edwardian moustache and modelled by Charles Keyser, and his daughter, Muriel, attending in the character of an Angel. The corresponding female panel below Mary is believed to include a portrait of Mrs Keyser, but no one is sure which.
    The composition is completed by a row of six castellated arches and angels bearing shields representing the implements of the Passion. That showing the Crown of Thorns and another with a ladder and INRI, the superscription on the cross, must draw the eyes of Rose Croix masons who will also note the ribbon quoting Isaiah 53.5: ‘He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities’.
    The project at Aldermaston, conceived and funded by Brother Keyser, realised by Kempe and Brother Newman, was accomplished in just over a decade but the legacy has lost none of its former lustre, more than a century later. Keyser employed Newman again to design nine overtly masonic stained glass windows for the apse of the chapel he donated to the Royal Masonic School for Boys at Bushey. Sadly, these are no longer readily accessible to members of the Craft but any of us could gain welcome spiritual refreshment by a visit to the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermaston.

David Sermon is a Past Master of the Lodge of Economy, No. 76, Winchester and holds Provincial Grand Rank. He also holds an advanced rank in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. He has contributed articles of masonic interest to Ars Quatuor Coronatorum as well as to Freemasonry Today.