OLGA.
Well, we shall soon be freed from his tyranny. To-morrow
the Despot is to be dethroned!

LUDWIG.
Hush, rash girl!  You know not what you say.

OLGA.
Don’t be absurd!  We’re all in it–we’re all tiled, here.

LUDWIG.
That has nothing to do with it.  Know ye not that in
alluding to our conspiracy without having first given and
received the secret sign, you are violating a fundamental
principle of our Association?

LUDWIG SINGS:

By the mystic regulation
Of our dark Association,
Ere you open conversation
With another kindred soul,
You must eat a sausage-roll! (Producing one.)

ALL SING.
You must eat a sausage-roll!

LUDWIG :
If, in turn, he eats another,
That’s a sign that he’s a brother–
Each may fully trust the other.
It is quaint and it is droll,
But it’s bilious on the whole.

ALL.        Very bilious on the whole.

The parody on the ritual continues with the members of the company in conversation:

MARTHA.
Oh, bother the secret sign!  I’ve eaten it until I’m quite
uncomfortable! I’ve given it six times already to-day–and
(whimpering) I can’t eat any breakfast!

BERTHA.
And it’s so unwholesome.  Why, we should all be as yellow
as frogs if it wasn’t for the make-up!

LUDWIG.
All this is rank treason to the cause.  I suffer as much as any     of  you.  I  loathe the repulsive thing–I can’t contemplate it
without a shudder–but I’m a conscientious conspirator, and if you won’t give the sign I will.
(Eats sausage-roll with an effort.)

LISA.
Poor martyr!  He’s always at it, and it’s a wonder where he puts it!

William S Gilbert, the librettist, dramatist and critic and Arthur Sullivan, a musical child prodigy, composer and conductor, had enjoyed separate successful careers before they first teamed in 1871 to produce the burlesque Thespis or The Gods Grown Old. Their Masonic careers had a parallel development. They were made Freemasons separately and unaware of each other’s pending interest in the Craft when they were introduced in 1868 by Frederic Clay (1838-1889) the English singer and composer, who had been initiated with Sullivan in 1865. After meeting as fellow Masons, however, they jointly progressed and enjoyed several degrees beyond the Craft.

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was born in the Strand in London on 18 November 1836 and died 29 May 1911 (while attempting to save what he thought to be a drowning adolescent), having established himself as England’s leading playwright, critic, humorist and satirist.

This, despite his early ambitions to become a lawyer, and became a Justice of the Peace in Middlesex in 1891. He was the son of a retired naval surgeon and his otherwise ordinary youth was sensationally interrupted when he was two – he was kidnapped by Italian brigands.

As a young man he chose to join the militia in the first half of 1850 but was too late to serve actively in the Crimean war, which had ended by 1855. He received his BA degree from King’s College, London and after a five-year spell from 1857, as a clerk in the Privy Council Office he took up law. He was called to the bar in 1864. It may have been his self-admitted failure as a barrister that led to his change of career. He started writing under the name of Bab, with anecdotal stories in various satirical magazines including Punch and Fun in the 1860s and Bab Ballads, his collected works, were published in 1869. By now his first successful drama, the burlesque Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack (1866) had already concluded its run and his second equally successful play The Palace of Truth (1870) was about to hit the London theatrical scene. He was soon established as a skilled humorist and his rhyming and metrical genius, together with his wonderful sense of the absurd, identified him as a unique talent. In 1907 King Edward VII knighted him. Notwithstanding his many personal achievements, William Gilbert remains most famous for his collaboration with Arthur Sullivan in the ‘Gilbert and Sullivan’ operettas, in which his very special skills found their ideal vehicle. The ‘comic opera’, is a genre which Gilbert and Sullivan elevated into an art form all of its own.

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in Lambeth, London in 1842 to a very musical family. His father was a bandmaster at the Royal Military College and young Arthur had mastered all of the wind instruments in his father’s band before the age of 10. By then he had already composed his own anthem and at 14 he was the youngest participant for the first Mendelssohn Scholarship competition, which he won. He also won various scholarships to study abroad and following the Royal Academy of Music, he studied in Leipzig, Germany where he performed his final “thesis” in the presence of Franz Liszt. Whilst still in Leipzig he composed the orchestral suite to Shakespeare’s The Tempest in 1861. The second performance took place on April 15 1862 at the Crystal Palace and earned him huge acclaim. Arthur Sullivan was now a qualified professor of Music and spent the next decade teaching. He was regarded the leading composer of the day with influential friends in every circle of society and patronised by European Royalty. His Onward, Christian Soldiers and The Lost Chord are only two of his many well known and major choral works, which include The Light of the World, The Martyr of Antioch, The Golden Legend, and his one grand opera, Ivanhoe. Sullivan’s first venture into comic opera was in 1867, with the writer F C Burnand. Together they produced Cox and Box and The Contrabandista.  It was, however his collaboration with Gilbert that has immortalised his name. He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1883. Later in his life he spent his time in Monaco, gambling and drinking. He was also a heavy smoker. Like all gamblers, Arthur Sullivan was hopelessly superstitious and believed in hoodoos, lucky stars and lucky days. At best he lived richly and fully, but his later years were not very happy ones. From 1872 he had suffered continuous bad health and died after a long illness on November 22, 1900.

Although their first collaboration was a success, it was their partnership with the impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte that produced the numerous dazzling operas. The first of the string of successes, which became known as the Savoy Operas, was Trial by Jury (1875) and the triumvirate continued to collaborate over the next twenty years. The partnership was not to dissolve until the unsuccessful and last play: The Grand Duke in 1896.

In the 1870s William Gilbert participated in manoeuvres in Scotland with the Royal Aberdeenshire Highlanders, a sort of military reserve of which he was an officer, having been active for the best part of 20 years.  It was here that he was initiated into Freemasonry in Lodge St Machar No 54 Scottish Constitution (with one Robert McFarlane) on 12th June 1871. This ancient Lodge was constituted in March 1753 and named after a companion of St Columba of Iona, who founded a church in 589 AD, still on the site in Aberdeen. It was thought that Gilbert may have been in Aberdeen on professional business and made an honorary member of the Aberdeenshire Militia, when initiated. The truth, however, shows him to have been an active Captain in the unit at a time when it was customary for volunteers to serve in the ancient regiment. Like other Military entities, there were often Lodges and Royal Arch Chapters associated with these units. He was made a Master Mason on 23rd June the same year.

His interest in freemasonry must have continued on his return to London. In June 1876 he became a member of Bayard Lodge number 1615, meeting in Duke Street. Owing to an indexing error William Gilbert has been confused with a W B Gilbert who, in February 1868, joined Harmony Lodge number 272 in Boston, Lincolnshire, became the organist and subsequently set Bro Walter Cleg’s words of the opening and closing odes to music. The error has emanated from the Lodge minutes of 8 June 1869 which record: a vote of thanks to Bro Gilbert for the singularly able manner in which he has composed the tunes for the lodge hymns.

Arthur Sullivan took his first degree in Harmony Lodge 255 than meeting at the Greyhound Inn, Richmond, Middlesex on 11 April 1865. His friend and the man that was to be instrumental in bringing about the Gilbert-Sullivan duo, Frederic Clay was initiated with him. Although Arthur Sullivan limited his Lodge duties to becoming the organist for a few years and took no other office in Lodge or the Province, he was honoured as the Grand Organist of the United Grand Lodge of England for the year 1887. This prestigious and single-year appointment was instituted by the Duke of Sussex after the Union in 1813 with Samuel Wesley the first holder of the office. Among the well-known musicians who have been appointed Grand Organist are William Boyce, Thomas Attwood, a pupil of Mozart, Thomas Arne, the composer of Rule Britannia, Sterndale Bennett and Walter Parratt. Sullivan was exceedingly active during the period leading to this appointment. He was holding two positions as organist in London. Between 1874 and 1887 he officiated as conductor of the Leeds Festival and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, simultaneously acting as the Principal of the National Training School in London between 1876 and 1881. On the 13 of June 1887 the musical evening at the Royal Albert Hall, celebrating Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, was under Sullivan’s direction, The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII and Grand Master at the time, attended the celebrations. In January 1896 Sullivan joined the United Stadholme Alliance Lodge number 1591, consecrated only twenty years earlier in 1876. He also gave his name to the Arthur Sullivan Lodge 2156, consecrated on 28 June 1886. The lodge still meets in Manchester in what is now the Province of East Lancashire. Arthur Sullivan, together with the Provincial Grand Master were appointed honorary members. Sullivan, in accepting to have his name used also justified his absence, and his future intentions, in his letter of 15th March, to the Senior Warden designate Bro A H Williams ‘. . . it is of course thoroughly understood that, in giving my name to the proposed Masonic Lodge, I am incurring no duties and responsibilities, and that my personal attendance is not expected.’ He never once attended the Lodge.

Gilbert and Sullivan progressed through the Royal Arch and the Ancient and accepted Rite (the Rose Croix) more or less simultaneously. They were both exalted into the now defunct Friends in Council Chapter number 1383 in February and July 1877 respectively. Gilbert preceded Sullivan in the Rose Croix, being perfected in the Bayard Chapter number 71 in 1876. Sullivan followed suit in 1878 and they both resigned a few years later. Sullivan also resigned from the Chapter just five years after his exaltation whilst Gilbert was still a member at the time of his death in 1911.

As one reads through their respective biographies, the differences in their nature become more and more apparent. In the period they collaborated musically and in their limited Masonic activities they found a common bond. Otherwise they appear to have been diametrically opposed in character. Sullivan, whose dying years were a reflection on his life style, was a likeable and gentle soul, more serious and very much a part of the establishment. Freemasonry suited him. Gilbert on the other hand was sarcastic and well known for his caustic wit, inclined toward mockery and more critical of his surroundings and fellow musicians. Their differences surfaced toward the end of their relationship as musical partners. Their Carpet Quarrel is now a cause celebre and took place in 1890. They had quarrelled and made up on many occasions but by 1896 their continuous arguments extended over important as well as trivial matters. Sullivan insulted Gilbert by stating that he could no longer produce light comic opera at the expense of his creative integrity. Gilbert refused to comply with the request to write a more serious opera as he did not see himself subordinate to Sullivan but rather equally brilliant. It was Gilbert that finally ended the partnership in 1898, the year of the production of their last and least successful play, in which the Masonic allusions are made. It has been suggested that The Grand Duke was excessively long because the author and composer were no longer speaking to each other.

It is sad that their lives ended with animosity and it is an equally consoling thought that in their joint Masonic activities, in the peaceful ambiance of a Lodge room where they sat together, they would have had occasion to enjoy that perennial Masonic message of true brotherly love and charity.

by W. Bro. Yasha Beresiner

Bibliography

• Draffen George, William S. Gilbert (AQC 66, 1953)
• Dark, Sidney and Grey, Roland, S. Gilbert: His Life and Letters (London, 1924).
• FMT Spring 1999
• Hughes, R Leicester Lodge of research 2003 Transactions

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Four other Archbishops of Canterbury (Arthur Ramsey 1961; Frederick Coggan, 1975; Robert Runcie, 1980 and George Carey 1991) bridged the gap between Fisher and the current Lord Archbishop The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Rowan Williams. None appear to have made as much an impact on the Church and Society in general as Geoffrey Fisher did. His high rank and profile as a Churchman and simultaneous activities as a freemason did not escape the notice of those who wished to decry freemasonry. His dignity and pride in the Craft overcame all criticism.

Geoffrey was the last of 10 children, born near Nuneaton in Warwickshire on the 5th of May 1887. The Fishers have a long-standing pedigree tracing their priestly origins as far back as the last decade of the 10th century and a monk named John Fisher, in the Anglo-Saxon Benedictine Abbey of Burton. His father Henry, a gentle and scholarly hyperactive priest and his good-natured loving mother encouraged Geoffrey to pursue his inclination toward an academic life. He was well prepared when he took the post of assistant master at his old school Marlborough in 1911. Deviating from family tradition, he went up to Oxford in 1906, instead of Cambridge, which his immediate ancestors had all preferred. He enjoyed the antiquity and ambiance of Exeter College founded in 1314. Qualified now in Theology he was ordained a priest ordained as a priest on 18 March 1913 at Wells Theological College in Salisbury and a year later, at the astonishingly young age of 27, he was appointed Headmaster of Repton, the 16th century prestigious and respected public school in Derbyshire. It is during his headmastership that Geoffrey Fisher was initiated into the Old Reptonian Lodge No. 3725 at Freemasons Hall, London on 11th January 1916. He was passed in October and made a Master mason on 9th January 1917. This was the start to a long and continued successful Masonic career.

Records of his undoubtedly successful 18-year stint as headmaster at Repton are scattered with incidents, which show him to have been both strict and at times ruthless in pursuing what he saw as justified discipline. Bro the Rev Neville Barker-Cryer, my colleague and well known Masonic historian, told me that he was appointed a clergyman by Geoffrey Fisher in 1959 at Adiscombe and at the time, and on various occasions that followed, Geoffrey Fisher never deviated from a scholastic, master to pupil approach in his communication with fellow priests and parishioners.  In January 1926 Bro Fisher became a joining member of Tyrian Lodge now No. 253 in Derby. The Lodge takes pride in having had no less than three Grand Chaplains of the United Grand Lodge of England as members. The other two being the Reverend L.D.H. Cokburne, LLD, who acted as such 1817-26, and was a joining member of the Lodge of Antiquity No. 2 and the Rev Neville Barker Cryer who, after 50 years of membership, is a Past Master of the Lodge. Notwithstanding the proximity of the Derby Lodge, Bro Fisher continued to attend his mother lodge in London and presided as Master during the course of 1928, whilst still headmaster of Repton, having been installed on the 10th of January of that year. It was almost a natural progression, on 13th March 1928, to be exalted into the Chapter of Justice No 253, which is attached to the Tyrian Lodge. It would appear that Companion Fisher did not embrace the Royal Arch with the same enthusiasm as he had for the Craft. The Chapter records show that he did not attend any meeting after his exaltation, notwithstanding the fact that his colleague the Bishop of Derby was also a member of the Chapter.

Meanwhile his clerical career was developing comfortably when circumstances took over his mundane intentions. Wishing to take a post as a county parson in family tradition, he stepped down as headmaster of Repton in 1932, when, to his surprise and undoubted delight, on 6 May 1932 he received a letter from the Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald informing him of his pending appointment, in September, as the Bishop of Chester. This was Geoffrey Fisher’s launch to high rank and fame. He resigned from both the Tyrian Lodge and the Chapter of Justice in June and September 1932 respectively as he moved into his new residence, the Bishop’s House, in the ancient and prestigious Bishopric of Chester. The flood of letters and official communications, which followed, congratulating him on his joining the bench of Bishops, was a testament to his popularity and the support he enjoyed. He was about to embark on a new career and once more he was prepared to take on the new challenges with enthusiasm and determination. During the next seven years he established himself as an individualist. Innovative in his routine duties and a considerate and concerned ecclesiastic leader. He excelled as a money-conscious administrator of Church affairs, most especially in the field of clerical legislation. These qualities and experience served him well for the future.

Having settled down, on 22 January 1935, the busy year of the Silver Jubilee of King George V, he joined the relatively new, five year old St Anselm Lodge No. 5166 meeting at Freemasons Hall in Chester. It only took him a year to be elected Master of the Lodge and to gain the Province’s recognition by being appointed Provincial Grand Chaplain. A year later, in 1937 he was given the high rank, one of two such acting ranks given each year, of Grand Chaplain of the United Grand Lodge of England and was again appointed two years later, shortly before being translated from Chester to become Bishop of London. The Masonic honours were as deserved by him as they were gratifying to freemasonry in general and the many Brethren he had endeared himself to in his Masonic career. He fulfilled his duties in Chester to the utmost satisfaction of his peers and in April 1939, as war was about to break, he was offered the see of London by the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Fisher’s response, in his own words, was to kneel and weep like a child, in spiritual anguish, fear and apprehension at what was awaiting him. He was in the prime of his manhood, with a fresh mind and a scholar intellectually gifted. London, in spite of the very difficult period, was to greatly benefit by his six-year spell. Throughout the dangerous war period he chose to remain in Fulham Palace, his official London residence and serve at St. Paul’s Cathedral in the very heart of the City. His many responsibilities were onerous and went beyond the call of duty. He proved himself to be courageous and a caring and dedicated, cooperative minister of the Church. Whilst in London, he made important friends and contacts, not least with the Royal family. This was a time when it was fashionable to be a freemason. King George VI was an overt supporter and active member of the Craft, having served as Provincial Grand Master for Middlesex and accepting the rank of Past Grand Master on his unexpected accession to the throne in 1937. Geoffrey Fisher had reached the top of his profession and there were many members of the clergy, not so prominent, who were also active freemasons. His appointment to the highest office an Anglican clergyman can aspire to attain took place at the end of the war in 1945 and lasted until 1961. As the Archbishop of Canterbury, his contributions to so many aspects of the religious and social structure in England had a telling effect on millions of individuals. Yet he will remain best remembered for the coronation of Queen Elisabeth II in Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1953, which followed on his marrying the then Princess Elisabeth to Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947. As the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher broke new ground in many areas. He had to cope with significant problems brought about by the rebuilding and peace process that followed the Second World War. He became a great traveller, the first Archbishop of Canterbury to visit Australia in 1950. He visited New Zealand, all parts of Africa and the Far East, as well as Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus and, famously, Jerusalem in 1960 prior to a meeting with the Pope in Rome, the first such meeting since the reformation in the 16th century. He was particularly active in the World Council of Churches and the revision of the Canon Law. He was an influential man and his contributions to education in particular and his political and social views have remained as part of his legacy to the present time.

As to freemasonry, he continued with his membership and gradually decreasing attendance of his lodges. He is recorded as having visited, for the last time, his mother Lodge, Old Reptonian No. 3725 in 1939. In February of 1965, at the ripe old age of 78, he resigned from St Anselm Lodge No. 5166 in Chester and at the next meeting in October of the same year he was made an honorary member. A great man who derived much pleasure and pride from the Craft and whose Masonic involvement has been of great moral and practical benefit to us all.

Brother Geoffrey Fisher died peacefully on 15 September 1972 in the small village of Trent in Dorset, having achieved the greatest ambition of his heart, to become the assistant parish priest.

As a post-script, there is an interesting Masonic connection with the current and the 104th Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Rowan Williams, who, following on an exchange of letters some weeks after his appointment, wrote to the Grand Secretary on 23rd January 2003 ‘Since my late father was a member of the Craft for many years, I have had every opportunity of observing the probity of individual members. . . . . I welcome the manner in which Freemasons have engaged in debate and especially the increasing openness of recent years. Their commitment to charitable causes and the welfare of the wider community is beyond question’.

NOTE ^1.On Fisher’s retirement from Canterbury on 31 May 1961 he was ennobled as a Life Peer on 2 June 1961 with the title Baron Fisher of Lambeth, the first Archbishop to be so created under the Life Peerages Act 1958

by W. Bro. Yasha Beresiner

Bibliography & credits

• Carpenter, Edward Archbishop Fisher – His Life and Times Canterbury Press 1991. (Note: this is an 820 page voluminous and pedantically detailed book that, quite surprisingly, does not make one single reference to Bro Fisher’s extensive Masonic activities.)
• Cocke, The Rev J F, Headington, Oxford published and private correspondence.
• Phillips, Denzil, Scribe E of the Chapter of Justice No 253 with thanks for guidance.

WM, R W Pro Grand Master (Lord Northampton), distinguished Brethren & Brethren

I know a number of Masons that would place a good bet that if the missing minutes of this Antients Enoch Lodge No XI, were they to be located, would establish that Laurence Dermott, that most extraordinary freemason, had at some time been a member, or at least, have several times attended Enoch Lodge.

You really cannot speak of the Antients without closely linking that Grand Lodge to the name of Laurence Dermott. It can be unequivocally stated that if it were not for Dermott there would have been no Antients Grand Lodge. If not for Dermot the whole structure of our Lodge and ceremonies would have been different. If not for Dermott we may very well not have had the opportunity to stand here this evening celebrating this very special occasion.

There are just a handful of men in the annals of freemasonry who can genuinely be seen as unique and extraordinary: I speak of men whose influence changed the face of our Craft men such as Elias Ashmole, Thomas Dunckerley and in particular for this lecture, Laurence Dermot. Whilst Dermot’s fame and activities revolved around the Antients Grand Lodge, the Royal Arch, somewhat indirectly, played a very significant part in his life and Masonic activities.

Laurence Dermot was born in Dublin in 1720 and initiated in Lodge number 26 in 1740. Six years later he was the Master and that same year, in 1746, he is recorded as being a Royal Arch Mason. One of the earliest references we have to the Royal Arch. In 1748 he came to England a poor man and as a journeyman painter joining a Moderns Lodge but very soon transferring his allegiance to the Antients. He was received in Lodge No 5 (now Kent 15) and then number 10 Lodge (now Royal Athelsatn 19).

These were difficult times for Freemasonry in general in England. The Premier Grand Lodge, top heavy with aristocrats and even members of Royalty, was being neglected. Dissatisfaction was wide spread and a minor incident finally broke the camel’s back. As recorded in the minutes of the Grand Lodge of England, on 11 December 1735 the Master and Wardens from a Lodge under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Ireland were refused admittance to the Quarterly communication of Grand Lodge. To the Irish, this incident was a major confrontation especially in the light of Irish Brethren often being denied membership in English Lodges. There were, by 1750, several exclusively Irish Lodges and on Wednesday 17th July 1751 five of these Lodges finally joined forces as a General Assembly referring to themselves as a Grand Committee with a view to forming the Grand Lodge of England according to the Old Institutions.

They recruited Laurence Dermott who, within a year of the establishment of the new Grand Lodge, replaced John Morgan as Grand Secretary at the meeting on 5th February 1752 at the Griffin in Holborn. All the information and references available on Dermott are based on the minutes he himself kept of Grand Lodge affairs and in the first book of constitutions of the Antients, Ahiman Rezon, which Dermott wrote.

From the start Dermott made his presence felt and took a grip of all aspects of the affairs of the Grand Lodge. There is no question that he was genuinely and totally dedicated to the welfare of the Antients Grand Lodge. The structure of the Antients suited him very nicely in those early days. Whilst awaiting the acceptance of some member of nobility before electing a Grand Master, Grand Lodge worked as a Grand Committee with the Grand Master on a rotating basis selected from one of the Worshipful Masters of the Antients Lodges. This gave Dermott immense power to control all aspects of the affairs of Grand Lodge. It continued until 27th December 1753 when Robert Turner was installed as the First Grand Master. It may be going too far to state that Dermott may have intentionally delayed the appointment of a noble Grand Master. Such action, however, would have allowed him to maintain his hold on the Brethren, fearing that a Grand Master might weaken his own plans for the new born Grand Lodge as well as his standing as Grand Secretary.

The power Dermot exercised was soon in evidence in the minutes of the Communications. In July 1752 two Brethren, now nicknamed by Dermott ‘Leg of Mutton’ masons were expelled from Grand Lodge for illicitly making Masons for the price of a leg of mutton. In September 1752 at the annual Installation of the new Grand Master – there being no Grand Master or Grand Wardens yet appointed – Dermott appointed himself as Grand Secretary ‘according to ancient custom’ and he then proceeded acting as Grand Master and investing the Grand Officers of Grand Lodge.

It is not surprising that there was considerable dissent and antagonism toward this strong character and it occasionally surfaced in Grand Lodge. On 6th December 1752 Dermott produced an old Manuscript and continued at great length explaining its content and importance. At the end of a very long session a motion was made to thank and praise the Grand Secretary, when four Brethren stood in protest and one of them declared that far from being of any interest the long lecture had caused the Brethren to loose their senses. Dermott was allowed to respond and began by saying that if he were given the opportunity to speak he would gladly sing all the brethren back to their senses. He was granted permission and continued for another hour.

It was, however, in 1756 that Dermott really excelled in his standing as a dedicated Antients freemason. This was the year of publication of the Antients Constitutions named ‘Ahiman Rezon’. The meaning and transliteration of the title still remains a mystery. Dermott was, however, very aware of the youth of his own Grand Lodge and that there was little room for an historic introduction of subsequence. In his introduction to the Constitutions, therefore, he proceeded announced that he really felt little need to follow in the footsteps of those who wasted time in irrelevant historical introduction. He did however compose and write a relevant and important introduction to which he wished to incorporate a summarised review of all the available information from other sources but found the material so boring that he fell asleep whilst reading it. Now he had a wonderful dream of four Sojourners from Jerusalem approaching him, praising him for his work and the material written so far and advising him on matters to add to his manuscript, when he was abruptly woken up by his puppy dog running around the room and under his feet whilst chewing the last pages of his manuscript. He apologised, therefore not to have an historical introduction and went straight on to attacking the Premier Grand Lodge of 1717.

Dermott needed to justify the formation of a competing Grand Lodge and he did so by attacking and attempting to diminish the standing of the Premier Grand Lodge. He quickly hooked on to the idea of the Premier Grand Lodge have deviated from the Land marks of the order and this continued as his theme whenever we come across his comments about the Premier Grand Lodge.

They did not recognise the Royal Arch – join the Antients and we will make you real masons.

They changed the first and second degree words and signs to supposedly protect the Brethren from the profane who were gaining access into Masonic Lodges as a result of the publication of a series of exposures after 1730. The Antients planned to revert to the original sequence.

They de-christianised the Order by eliminating references to the Trinity in their Constitutions. The Antients would revert to a Christian Society.

Much of this, however, was just rhetoric. The 1756 Constitutions overtly included prayers for Christian and Jewish Lodges and the attempts of Dermott to establish the Royal Arch as a fourth degree were frustrated in 1766 when the members of the Moderns Grand Lodge formed the Supreme Grand Chapter under whose authority we still meet today.

Dermott began to suffer from gout and we are constantly reminded of his problems with health. None the less he continued in his aggressive and cantankerous involvement with the Antients to his dying day. He won every argument brought forward.

In June 1671 he was honoured in Grand Lodge and saluted with 5 and claimed that he should have been saluted with 3. Following that argument he proposed formally that the number of the salutation given to any Grand Officer should be at the discretion of Grand Lodge and the Grand Master. Following a brief discussion he was saluted again 39 times . . .  as it happened to be his 39th birthday! All recorded in the minutes.

In March 1771 the 3rd Duke of Atholl appointed him Deputy Grand Master after serving nearly 20 years as Grand Secretary. In 1783 he was again appointed Deputy Grand Master and continued until 1787.

My last image of Dermott is in March 1789 still active but now totally unfit with swollen legs that prevented him from walking; nonetheless he attended Grand Lodge for the last time . . . carried in on the shoulders of two Grand Deacons. Was it foresight that had led him to establish the Office of Deacon when the Antients were first formed?

Dermot died in June 1791 and we still do not know where he is buried. As I said Brethren, an extraordinary Man and Freemason.

by W. Bro. Yasha Beresiner

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WM, Distinguished Brethren & Brethren, 

It is a great honour to be invited actively, so to speak, to participate in your important celebrations and thank you W M and Brethren for your invitation to address the Lodge this afternoon.

Brethren, there is a distinct difference between famous men who happen to be freemason – to whose careers freemasonry did not contribute any fame: Winston Churchill, the Duke of Wellington, Oscar Wilde and men who are famous freemasons: John Anderson, Laurence Dermot, Thomas Dunckerley, William Preston and, of great relevance to these celebrations of the Burlington Lodge today: Dr Robert Thomas Crucefix. These are men who, but for their involvement in freemasonry, would have most probably passed on forgotten. Of all the many famous freemasons, Crucefix will be seen as the most controversial and charismatic.

His dedication to freemasonry is manifest in his total involvement in the Burlington Lodge where he was initiated on 16 April 1829, became Master in 1833. He was Treasurer for a decade from 1839 and, simultaneously served as Secretary for 5 years in 1844. Sadly, as you will read in Victor’s excellent history of the Lodge, Burlington Lodge lost a great deal of its early records and we have no information of Crucefix’s early days as a freemason, beyond what we find in his own writings.

To study and understand as complex a character as Crucefix, however, we first need to consider two other aspects relevant to freemasonry: the time framework and the standing of the Duke of Sussex. In England the Union of the Antients and Moderns took place in December 1813 after the two Grand Lodges, the Moderns (1717) and the Antients (1751) had been at loggerheads for more than 60 years. The following decades, though exciting and gratifying at the concordat that had finally been reached, were precarious and difficult.

The rule of the Duke of Sussex as Grand Master had to be, by force of circumstance, harsh and strict. Here was a man of Royal blood and great intelligence and talent who enjoyed being son of a King, yet was basically insecure. He was held back by an unlawful and failed marriage, illness and a chronic shortage of available funds. In freemasonry, particularly as Grand Master, he found ethics and a spirit that coincided with his own outlook on life and allowed him to fulfil his forceful nature and autocratic instincts.

This tendency to autoc

ratic rule manifested itself in various ways, not least by the subjugation of the Orders and degrees beyond the Craft and Royal Arch, which had began to prosper in the last decades of the 18^th century. This, however, only applied to England. It was not the situation in the neighbouring Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland, where the many Orders beyond the Craft continued to flourish and prosper.

It was in this ambiance that Crucefix launched himself, so to speak, onto the Masonic stage. Richard Sandbach, to whose article in AQC 102 I am indebted for this brief presentation, states:

Crucefix did not so much climb the Masonic ladder as scale it with the rapidity of an assault

Intent and intense, he joined Lodge after Lodge, (he was Master of Lodge of Concord in 1834, the year after he stepped down as Master of Burlington). Exalted into the Royal Arch (Naval & Military Royal Arch Chapter) in Edinburgh a year after his initiation, he joined and progressed through the Chair of several chapters. He was soon involved in all the other Orders, so far as they were available in England, Scotland and/or Ireland. The Knights Templar, Rose Croix and Ne Plus Ultra (1831), the Knight Templar Priest (1832), Ark Mariner (1833) Mark (1839). He was also involved in Freemasonry in France and USA. In between his Lodge, Chapter and encampment activities, he dedicated himself to what was his love in freemasonry: charitable work. He joined and was vociferous in several committees, which is how all the problems associated with Robert Crucefix really began.

In 1834 Crucefix founded the Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (FQR), of which he remained editor until 1840. The new magazine was intended to report on all matters of Masonic interest, especially on the proceedings of the Quarterly Communication of the United Grand Lodge of England, in full.  It is significant to note that anonymity to contributors to the magazine was guaranteed from the start, implying that Crucefix had plans or concerns that his comments in the FQR might be controversial and would be objected to by the hierarchy. In the same year he also became Chairman of a fund raising committee for the Asylum for Aged and Decayed Freemasons. A project advocated some years earlier by the Rev Gilbert Gilbert and which Crucefix now re-launched with full fervour. Quite naturally, he promoted these initiatives for a home for aged and ailing freemasons through his new quarterly magazine, the FQR. On 29 May 1835 a theatrical entertainment was organised by Crucefix, now a Trustee and Treasurer, to raise funds for the Asylum Project and more serious problems began.

The Duke of Sussex’s annoyance with Crucefix began in simple terms but soon escalated to a full frontal conflict. Sussex did not like Crucefix’s involvement in the Orders beyond the Craft and he pa

rticularly did not like Crucefix promoting these Orders through the pages of FQR. This was in total opposition to the Duke’s intentions, who, following the Union in 1813, was attempting to suppress Masonic activity beyond the three Craft degrees and the Royal Arch in England in order to keep control. This was manifest, for instance, in the Christian allusions in the other Orders, which The Duke had been endeavouring to remove from Craft ritual. More importantly, the Duke felt persuaded that there was no room for an additional charity in Freemasonry.

The Duke had plans for a totally different charitable project to that proposed by Crucefix. It was a scheme of annuities from which needy freemasons would be able to draw funds. He felt that there simply was no need for an Asylum especially a building that would drain funds and that the burden of maintenance would tie the Craft down. Freemasonry could simply not afford another charity, according to the Duke. In pursuing his personal views he demanded and then rejected presentations made by Crucefix of plans for the Asylum Project. Meanwhile warnings were directed at Crucefix by senior masons, the Deputy Grand Master and the Grand Secretary, that no meeting on the subject of the Asylum should take place without the Grand Master’s approval. The repeated appeals and warnings were to no avail. Crucefix began to travel the Country promoting his cause among freemasons and in his magazine. Convinced that ‘public’ opinion could win over the Grand Lodge and the Grand Master.

Somewhat surprisingly, in December 1837 the Quarterly communication of Grand Lodge passed a motion recommending the contemplated Asylum to the favourable consideration of the Craft. The motion was confirmed in March 1838 but Crucefix would have been wrong to think he was home and dry. He went ahead with full publicity notwithstanding the fact that he was soon made aware that the Grand Master and his executive not only objected but saw the Asylum Project as an unauthorised

institution, in spite of the resolution passed by Grand Lodge. This was confirmed in a long letter by the Grand Master addressed to Crucefix and others in August 1839, which ended:

Now, without imputing motives to anyone, there can be no doubt the Craft will be misled in supposing that I have given a silent consent to such a plan, which I am equally determined, as before, to resist; therefore, unless it is clearly understood chat the intention of erecting an Asylum is totally abandoned, I feel myself under the necessity of declining any communication upon the subject.

The battle was on. The Asylum committee approved a rebuttal document at a meeting in November effectively stating that the Duke had got things wrong and that Grand Lodge had approved the resolution regarding the establishment of the Asylum. Unfortunately, during the meeting presided by Crucefix, matters got out of hand and the Duke of Sussex was overtly insulted. As a result, on 10 March 1840, the Board of General Purposes suspended two Brethren concerned and Crucefix, for six months. As unjust as this may have been, worse was to come. Crucefix decided to appeal to Grand Lodge and was informed by his lawyer that a notice of appeal automatically annulled his sentence of suspension. He therefore continued to attend meetings. This infuriated the Grand Master who personally confronted Crucefix in the corridors of Grand Lodge on 19 April 1840, as recorded in FQR. The image that can be conjured is vivid, Sussex 6 foot 3 inches tall and corpulent by any standards, in a state of agitation looking down on the little Doctor. Crucefix was accused of being a disgrace to freemasonry, that he had led the Brethren astray, insulted the Grand Master and in gross violation of discipline had attended and presided as Master in Lodges when under suspension.

The dismissal of Crucefix’s appeal on 3^rd June 1840 on technical grounds were made worse by the Duke of Sussex himself presiding over the proceedings. Crucefix vented his anger with a direct attack on the Grand Master in the pages of FQR and a personal impertinent letter accusing the Duke of deviating from the landmarks of the Order. He resigned from all the lodges and as a Grand Officer. When summoned by the Board to attend and explain his conduct, he refused on the grounds that the Board no longer had any jurisdiction over him. Although there is no supporting evidence, Crucefix must have been persuaded to attend the special meeting of Grand Lodge convened in October 1840. He turned up in Scottish regalia but was soon clothed with his proper English rank of Past Grand Deacon – looking undoubtedly as he does in the famous painting donated by this Lodge to Grand Lodge,of which you can see a reproduction on display. The impasse had to be broken. The Duke of Sussex did not attend and proceedings in the hands of the Deputy Grand Master, the Marques of Salisbury were conducted with absolute propriety. Crucefix signed a drafted apology and his expulsion was rescinded by a vote only just carried by 145 to 127. It would appear, as a further gesture of reconciliation, in the next issue of the FQR in December 1840 it was announced that the FQR had passed into other hands.

On 21 April 1843 the Duke of Sussex passed to the Grand Lodge above and the 2^nd Earl of Zetland was installed as Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England. So far as freemasonry was concerned in England, the flood gates were opened. Crucefix remained involved in the revival of the Christian Orders, which he had continuously supported through the pages of the FQR in the past two decades. He became Sovereign Grand Commander for life of the Supreme Council 33^rd degree of the A& A Rite (Rose Croix) and declined the Grand Mastership of the Knights Templar in February 1846, though he acted as the Director of Ceremonies at the installation in the Grand Conclave of England.

On various occasions in correspondence with his close friend Dr Oliver, Crucefix had complained that the proceedings against him and his defiant responses have seriously injured my health. Dr Robert Crucefix died at Bath on 25 February 1850. The same year that the Duke of Sussex scheme for the care of the aged and Crucefix’s Asylum, which was officially opened in August, were united under the auspices of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution, still prospering today and a legacy to Crucefix’s dedication.

Bro Richard Sandbach, in the reference I quoted, asks: was Crucefix swayed by charity or by ambition? Did he act for the benefit of Freemasonry or some purpose of his own?

My view, Brethren is that the Burlington Lodge can take very great pride in having had this warm-hearted and genuine Brother as a member of its Lodge.

Winston Churchill was the greatest British statesman in recent history. In it he played a unique role as a soldier and a politician, an author and artist and a family man. In 1901 he became a freemason. What induced him to join the fraternity? How active was he as a freemason? What part did Freemasonry play in his life?

Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born 30^th November 1874 and educated at Harrow. He was far from being a brilliant student, particularly weak in maths and the classics but excelled in the English language – which was to serve him so well through his life.

Edward Prince of Wales Grand Master

At the time of Winston Churchill’s initiation into the Studholme Lodge on 24^th May 1901, Freemasonry was a fashionable social pursuit. The election of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) as Grand Master in 1875 gave a huge impetus to Freemasonry. Britain, in this first decade of the 20^th Century, was doing exceedingly well. These were Edwardian times and there was a general atmosphere of invincibility in all fields of achievement.

Edward VII, as Prince of Wales, had been an exceedingly popular Royal and Grand Master and brought with him a host of other Royals and aristocrats who gladly joined the Craft. It was not by accident that the promising young Winston was introduced to the Studholme Lodge in London.

Studholme Lodge 1591

R W Bro John Studholme Brownrigg, Provincial Grand Master for Surrey, whose prominent family gave its name to the new Lodge, consecrated the Studholme Lodge on 31^st January 1876. In 1881 the Lodge moved from Surbiton, to London and the summonses began to read like a Who’s Who of the aristocracy and social elites. The guest list for the 21^st Installation Banquet in 1897 has 17 Members of Parliament including the Lord Chancellor, numerous Lords, Earls, Knights and high-ranking members of the Armed Forces dispersed throughout the dinning room.

Within two months of his initiation, Winston was passed to the second degree and on 5^th March 1902 he was made a Master Mason, all three ceremonies conducted in the Studholme Lodge. An unfortunate communication in 1955 by the Librarian of our Grand Lodge has led to the erroneous reports that Churchill was raised in Rosemary Lodge No 2851. This occurred because the Studholme Lodge register has the name Geoffrey C Glyn above and Charles Clive Bigham below that of Winston Churchill. Further along the line against both these names is the entry ‘Raised in No 2851 11^th Nov 1901’. This entry was wrongly also attributed to Churchill. In 1976 the newly named United Studholme Lodge amalgamated for a second time to attain its present name as the Studholme Alliance Lodge No 1591.

The Churchills – Freemasons

Winston will have been aware of the high Masonic standing of his far removed ancestor Lord Henry John Spencer-Churchill (b.1797 d.1840) the 4^th son of the 5^th Duke of Marlborough. A Captain in the Royal Navy, a member of the household of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex at the time when the Duke was Grand Master, Lord Henry was indeed a prominent freemason. He was a member of the prestigious Lodge of Antiquity No 2 and became Deputy Grand Master in 1835 when the Earl of Durham was appointed Ambassador to Russia and was compelled to resign. Lord Henry had already been honoured with the rank of Past Senior Grand Warden in 1832 and served as President of the Board of General Purposes in 1834. On 2nd September 1936 he was appointed Provincial Grand Master for Oxfordshire and served his Province well until his untimely death in action, on board the HMS Dolphin in the China Sea, on 2^nd June 1840. A large, well-kept gravestone marks his burial in the rather small and hidden away Protestant cemetery in Macao. His memory was immortalised in the Churchill Lodge No 702 (now number 478), which was founded in 1841 in his honour.

It is only appropriate that Winston’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-1895) and his uncle, Randolph’s elder brother, George Charles Spencer-Churchill (1844-1892) the Marquis Blanford, should both be initiated in the Churchill Lodge on the 9^th February 1871. The two brothers were excluded on 22^nd January 1883 – together with eleven other Brethren, Oscar Wilde amongst them – for non-payment of dues. They were subsequently reinstated as they had been in South Africa on Her Majesty’s Service. Some ten years later another member of the Churchill family was to be made a freemason in the Lodge: Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill (1871–1934) 9^th Duke of Marlborough, and first cousin of Winston, was initiated on the 7^th of May 1894 aged 21.

Resignation and Petitions

By 1912 Winston Churchill was well on his way to political success and fame. In October 1911 he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In the knowledge that he would no longer be able to take any part whatsoever, he resigned from the Studholme Lodge in July 1912 and continued his membership of the Craft.

In January 1918 a petition was presented to Grand Lodge for the formation of a new Lodge to be named ‘Ministry of Munitions Lodge’. An explanatory letter stated that ‘members stationed in London away from home..’ who had been brought together in the Ministry of Munitions of War, felt the need to meet in a Masonic environment. It also proposed ‘Armament Lodge’ as an alternative name. A total of 95 Brethren signed the petition and included Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry and Winston Churchill, Minister of Munitions. 

The petition was refused in a letter dated 14^th January 1918 addressed to Lieut. Alfred Lewis, the Senior Warden designate and signed by the Grand Secretary V W Bro P Colville Smith:

‘Dear Sir and Brother,

The petition for the proposed Ministry of Munitions Lodge has been carefully considered…… & I regret to have to inform you that…… the prayer thereof (cannot) be acceded to’ on the grounds that ‘the policy of the advisors of the Grand Master has always been to decline to recommend the printing of a warrant for a new Lodge where it was intended that the membership thereto be restricted to the members of any particular department of the Civil Service of the crown….’. 

On 27^th February 1918, at the request of the Master designate W Bro E Allen, an amended proposition was reconsidered and the Armament Lodge No 3898 saw the light of day on 19^th November 1918. Winston Churchill, now appointed Secretary of State for War, was not one of the petitioners.

This was not, however, the last of Churchill’s involvement with petitions to Grand Lodge. During this period of tension and patriotic fervour that followed the end of the First World War, Clementine Churchill, Winston’s energetic and supportive wife, often visited munitions factories through England. In early November 1917 she visited the Rees Roturbo Manufacturing Company known as the Ponder’s End Shell Works, near Enfield in North London and prompted by some of the workers she wrote to Churchill’s Private Secretary, Eddie Marsh on 5^th of November seeking Winston’s assistance on their behalf.

‘The workmen of Ponder’s End Shell Work have sent a petition to the Grand Lodge of the Freemasons asking that a local lodge which they are starting may be called after Mr Brindley: they want it to be called the ‘Bickerton Brindley Lodge’. The men are afraid that the Grand Lodge may turn down the request as Mr Brindley is not apparently a very important Freemason, and they asked me if it would be possible for Winston to write a line to the Duke of Connaught, who is the Grand Master, to say that he thinks Mr Brindley is a very suitable man and that it will give great pleasure to the men he employs if the Lodge is given his name. The Grand Lodge meets on Friday next when they think that the request will be considered. All the Freemasons in the Works will of course be members of this Lodge.

Please be very kind and see that Winston does this

Yours affectionately

Clemmie

If you wan t more explanation do ring me up.’

Winston Churchill’s response and subsequent efforts are quite extraordinary. Within two days, on 7 November 1917, he wrote to the Grand Master, the Duke of Connaught, as follows:

‘Sir

I should be grateful if I might be allowed to call Your Royal Highness’ attention to the request which I understand will come before the meeting of the Grand Lodge on the Freemasons on Friday next, that a local Lodge about to be inaugurated at the Ponder’s End Shell Works may be named the Bickerton Brindley Lodge’ after the Manager of the Factory.

Mr Brindley’s energy and ability have proved of the highest value to the Ministry of Munitions, and he has succeeded in a remarkable degree in enlisting the enthusiasm of the workers in the manufacture of shells. If the proposed compliment could be allowed, it would be a source of much gratification to them, and a valuable stimulus to the increase of their output.

It is on these grounds that I venture to ask if Your Royal Highness would feel able to advance the matter

I am Sir

Your Royal Highness’ most obedient servant

Winston S Churchill

He also took further and more important action to support the Lodge’s application. Firstly he joined the petitioners for the new Lodge, now to be named Ponders End Lodge (aware, no doubt, that a change of name for the intended Lodge will have a far better chance of success). This final petition was submitted on 10 December 1917. Winston Churchill’s name appears among the petitioners and his profession is entered as Cabinet Minister. An explanatory typewritten letter accompanying the new petition dated 10 December 1917 is signed by Winston Churchill. The text begins:

We, the undersigned, being regularly registered Master Masons of the Lodge mentioned against our respective names………are desirous of forming a new Lodge. 

The name ‘Brindley Lodge’ has been erased and the name Ponders End Lodge has been inserted instead in manuscript. This is still not the end of Churchill’s efforts to promote the application of this particular lodge.

After the petition was submitted his hand written note personally addressed to the Grand Secretary, J Colville Smith, states:

My dear Sir,

As I am much interested in the application which has been made by the workers at Ponders End Shell Factory for permission to call their Lodge the ‘Ponders End Lodge of Freemasons’, I should be really obliged if you could let me know whether it has been granted,

Yours very faithfully

Winston Churchill

The reply will have followed soon after receipt of Churchill’s letter. It is dated February 23 1918:

My dear Sir,

The application for the proposed Ponders End Lodge has recently been carefully considered by the advisers of the Grand Master, who with great regret came to the decision that they were unable to recommend the granting of the petition.

Yours faithfully

J Colville Smith G. Sec.

Winston’s considerable efforts, beyond the call of his immediate interests, can only be attributed to his eagerness to fulfil his wife’s innocent request. How much more could he have done than write to the Grand Master, join the petitioners, sign the covering letter and chase the Grand Secretary for results! His efforts came to nothing. The petition had been refused on 8 February 1918. Was Churchill peeved? Maybe frustrated and disconcerted by this refusal to his repeated, almost formal, personal requests? Did he, as a result, have a pique against freemasonry? There is no evidence to indicate any such emotions on his part.

Churchill’s only other recorded Masonic visit was to the Royal Naval Lodge No 59 on 10^th December 1928, as the guest of the Worshipful Master W H Bernau, his insurance broker. He signed the attendance book as a member of the Studholme Lodge. The next day Bro Bernau wrote to Churchill, in rather naïve terms:

Dear Mr Churchill,

I wish to thank you again for so kindly coming to the dinner last night…… I only hope you were not bored stiff. 

Masonry might have as powerful an effect as the League of Nations if it could be properly worked with a central meeting ground for representations of all the Grand Lodges in the World

Yours sincerely

W H Bernau

An annotation on the letter in Winston handwriting curtly states:

Eddie,

a line of thanks – say I enjoyed it.

This was not the end of Churchill’s Masonic contacts. On 6^th October 1943 W Bro E E Natty on behalf of ‘a number of Loyal Freemasons residing in this City (Belfast)’ wrote to Winston Churchill ‘desirous of forming a Lodge to be called . . . The Churchill Masonic Lodge’ and requested his permission to do so.  This led to an internal exchange of memoranda between Churchill’s Private Secretary, Edward Marsh and his Personal Secretary, Mrs R E K Hill. Edward Marsh effectively instructed Mrs Hill to decline the request which is reflected in Mrs Hill’s response to Mr E E Natty on 9^th October: ‘….Mr Churchill would be complimented by your request …. (and) would prefer that his name should not be used in this way, since he is unable to take a personal part in the Lodge’s activities.’

CONCLUSIONS

What are the conclusions to be reached, then, of Winston Churchill’s Masonic career?

Clearly Winston, in becoming a freemason, complied with the fashion of the time. His respect and affection for his father, Lord Randolph and the distinguished line of Freemasons in his family will have played a part in his joining the craft. It will also have fulfilled Winston’s own curious interest in this and other fraternities. In November 1904 he accepted honorary membership in the Hawthorn Lodge of the British Order of Ancient Free Gardeners in Glasgow. He is recorded as a member of the Loyal Waterloo Lodge of the National Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Manchester in April of 1907 and of the Albion Lodge, Oxford of the Ancient Order of Druids in September 1908 (his father, was also a member of the Woodstock Lodge of Independent Order of Foresters). Winston Churchill’s association with freemasonry must be placed within this context of his membership, and almost certain equal inactivity, in all these various organisations.

To state that freemasonry will not have made an impression on Churchill would be belittling the depth of our fraternity. On the other hand, to imply that his life or actions were in any way fundamentality influenced by his having been a mason is unreasonable at best.  Had freemasonry had any significance of consequence to Churchill we would have known it. He was a prolific orator and author and has written extensively and in detail about his youth and his life. So have umpteen other authors and biographers. Nowhere is there to be found a mention of freemasonry in any context at all.

These facts, however, do not detract from the pride we as freemasons derive in the knowledge that Winston Churchill was a freemason, descended from a long line of active and distinguished Brethren of the Craft.

CREDITS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Natalie Adams, Archivist, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge 
• John D Forster, Education Officer at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock
• Robert Good, author of the 150^th Anniversary History and Past Secretary of the Churchill Lodge No 478
• Staff of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Great Queen Street London

Malcolm Campbell was born in Chiselhurst, in the County of Kent on 11^th March 1885 to William Campbell and Hazel Castley, a meek mother and an authoritarian and strict father. His ancestry can be traced back many generations to a Scottish Highland family of long-standing military traditions in Argyll, which may well have influenced his exceptional personality and resolute character. From a young age Malcolm became fascinated by engines and the railway and more especially the underlying forces that drove the machinery. His schooling was not of particular note except for sport and the later connection to Freemasonry. At the age of eleven, at Guildford preparatory school, he read King Solomon’s Mines by Rider Haggard. It installed in him that sense of adventure that allows the imagination of a youngster to go wild and the book affected him for life. In 1898, at thirteen he was sent to the distinguished ancient Uppingham School in Rutland and in 1924 he was to be initiated in his old school Lodge.

Malcolm never lost his great enthusiasm for racing and his fascination with speed. In 1910, between the period of his employment by Lloyds of London and his service in the Air Force, he entered and won his first automobile race at the Brooklands circuit. He was never to look back. His name and career were to be closely associated with Brooklands through his life. He continued and set many motorcycle and car speed records as well as motorboat ones. He received his knighthood in 1931 for his distinguished achievements. Malcolm Campbell was undoubtedly the most successful racing driver of his time, dubbed ‘the speed king’.

In the middle of his extraordinary career as a racing driver, on 15 October 1924 he become a freemason and was passed and raised in the following three months. There has been some confusion with regard to his initiation because registration records held at Grand Lodge show Malcolm Campbell’s name written below that of George Noel Buckton. George Buckton was initiated in Lodge Kumaon No 1870, District of Bengal, India. He joined Old Uppinghamian Lodge No 4227 on the same date that Campbell was initiated and the two Brethren were then passed and raised together on 9 December 1924 and 14 January 1925 respectively. The entry for Malcolm Campbell states ‘do’ below Buckton’s initiation date. This has led to erroneous presumption that Malcolm Campbell was initiated in Lodge 1870 and was a joining member of the ‘closed’ Old Uppinghamian Lodge in 1924. The school Lodge still today draws its membership solely from Old Boys and their children and Masters at the School.

In February 1928 Malcolm and his wife Dorothy sailed for Daytona Beach in Florida USA arriving there on the 12^th and breaking a new speed record on the same day! It was the first of several visits with the famed ‘Blue Bird’. He was to return to Daytona annually in the early 1930s each time achieving a new and faster record. There have been persistent reports of his joining various Masonic bodies in the United States during these periods, most persistently his supposed membership of the Zangi Grotto in Daytona Beach. The Grottoes of North America is a Masonically affiliated fraternal body founded by Leroy Fairchild in September 1889. Membership is restricted to Master Masons and it claims to be ‘primarily an organization for good wholesome fun and frolic’. There is no trace of Malcolm Campbell’s membership of the Grotto. In fact, there is no record in any of the various Masonic bodies, including the Grand Lodge of Florida, which would indicate any kind of Masonic activity by Malcolm Campbell in the United States of America.

He was, for a while, very active as a Freemason. His second wife Dorothy Lady Campbell remembered that he was keen and eager when he was initiated into his old school Lodge. For the several years he attended the meetings and felt that there was no institution to rival Freemasonry. He told Dorothy ‘Freemasonry is all the religion I  need – if I can only live to the ideals of the Craft, I would want nothing more.’ Yet quite suddenly he completely lost interest and resigned from the Lodge on 10^th January 1934. The lodge records only show two other entries relevant to Malcolm Campbell. On his being knighted on 1931 a letter of congratulations was forwarded to him by the Lodge and recorded in the minutes. Similarly on his resignation a note in the minutes shows that he was approached with a view to his changing his mind. He did not do so.

In 1929, when Campbell was still a member of the Lodge, a special presentation of a Masonic Gate was made to the school. It coincided with two important events at the time. The completion of the memorial building to the victims of the First World War as well as the School Lodges Festival held at the school in that year. There is only sparse information about the gates, which still stand proud at one of the two entrances to the school. The Lodge minutes do not mention the gates at all and the school records show a William Ellis, an old boy and a Governor of the school, who was involved in the reconstruction of the area around the gates and their installation on the site in 1929. Little else except for the pride that the school has in the very beautiful and prominent gateway to the grounds.

In 1935, Sir Malcolm was the first to reach the 300 miles per hour mark in his celebrated Bluebird at Bonneville Flats, Utah. From here he chose to move to speedboat racing and in 1939 set a new world record of 141 miles per hour. Sir Malcolm Campbell died after a long illness in 1949. His very special ‘speed’ legacy was taken up by his son Donald who continued in his father’s tradition, soon to become world famous in his own right.

Rather surprisingly the Masonic membership of Donald Campbell only came to light relatively recently, when the Library and Museum of Freemasonry in London were presented with his Masonic apron and case in April 1993. Most of the records that show Malcolm Campbell to have been active in the Craft fail to mention his son Donald as a Freemason.

Donald Malcolm Campbell was born in Kingston, Surrey on 23 March 1921.  He had a hard act to follow. His father was a true British hero adored by the nation. The relationship between father and son was never a happy one and certainly complicated by the fact that Sir Malcolm, overwhelmed by his own career and consuming ambition, found little time for his son who, in turn, idolised his dad.  The tense relationship is manifest in an incident now well recorded. For his 7^th birthday, Donald received a toy motorcar with a small and complete tool kit as a gift by his Dad. Within hours he had dismantled the toy car into small pieces, with nuts and bolts dispersed in the house and garden. Malcolm Campbell was not amused. On the contrary, surprisingly angry and unsympathetic, he did not speak to his son for several days until the toy car had been re-assembled back into its original state.

Donald was brought up, with his sister Jean, by a nursery governess and was soon sent to Horsham preparatory school seeing little of his Dad during his youth. Nonetheless he admired and respected him and was to emulate his famous father with great pride and success. He began in reverse, so to speak, and took on speedboat racing first. It was almost natural to attempt his first record in the seat of his father’s well-tested boat, the Bluebird K4, which he purchased from his father’s estate. His early efforts were frustrated, however. In 1951 he crashed on Coniston Water in the Lake District, at a speed of 170 mph and notwithstanding numerous other failures he persisted and his perseverance paid off. In 1955 on Ullswater and in his own newly designed Bluebird K7 boat, he set his first 202 mph world speed record on water. Between July 1955 and December 1964 Donald Campbell was to set world water speed records on seven different occasions reaching 276.33 mph. He was honoured with the CBE for his achievements.

In between these various failed attempts and record-breaking feats, Donald became a freemason. He was initiated on 16 February 1953 into the prestigious Grand Master’s Lodge No 1 having been introduced and proposed by the then Master, Robert James Coley, a wealthy scrap metal dealer and benefactor. By a good stroke of luck the Junior Deacon at the ceremony of Donald’s initiation is alive and well. I had the pleasure of speaking with Sir Kenneth Newton, Past President of the Board of General Purposes, and the senior most Past Master of the Lodge, having himself been initiated on 17 December 1945. He well remembers Donald Campbell’s initiation. ‘An excellent candidate’ recounts Sir Kenneth. ‘Donald was undoubtedly a little nervous and I could feel a light tremble in his arm as I led him round the lodge room. He was however an excellent Mason, attended regularly and acted as a gentleman in every way’ concludes Sir Kenneth. Donald was passed and raised in April and May of the same year. His enthusiasm for the Craft is reflected in his exaltation into the Grand Master’s Chapter No 1 on 6 July 1954. Donald, like his father, never took office in Lodge. He appears to have enjoyed the fraternity and his attendance at Lodge and was also present at the bicentennial celebrations on the Grand Master’s Lodge No 1 at the Mansion House in 1957.

Following his successful water speed record in November 1955 on Lake Mead in Nevada USA, Donald decided to emulate his father’s success and attempt the world land speed record. He began to build the new Bluebird Car with a view to achieving 400 mph and on 17th July 1964 the astonishing speed of 403.10mph was set at the dry Lake Eyre in South Australia. A new world record. Within six months, in December 1964, he broke the world water speed record reaching 276.3mph on Lake Dumbleyung in Australia. Donald Campbell remains the only person in history to have held both water and land speed records in the same year.

On 4 January 1967 on Coniston Water in Cumbria, where he had crashed his first boat in 1951, Donald Campbell was to meet his tragic death. In redesigning the Bluebird K7 in order to achieve a speed in excess of 300 mph, Donald and his engineers may have overestimated the physical capacity of the boat. The disaster occurred at over 300 mph and Donald was killed, effectively attempting to break his own world record.

His remains and the wreck of Bluebird K7 were not recovered until 2001. A service of Remembrance and burial took place at St Andrew’s Church, Coniston Village on the 12th of September 2001.

The Campbells will forever remain great British heroes. As befits the quality of character of many man of consequence, they  too will have embraced aspects of freemasonry enhancing the spirit of their many achievements.

Credits and bibliography

• Aspell, Timothy Secretary Old Uppinghamian Lodge No 4227
• Bettles, Fiona Marketing Manager, Uppingham School
• Cambbell, Lady Dorothy Malcolm Campbell- The Man as I  Knew Him London 1951
• Encyclopædia Britannica Campbell, Sir Malcolm 2005
• Fairclough, Ian Secretary Grand Master’s Lodge No 1
• Simmons, Clayton E. DDGM District 16 The Grand Lodge of  Florida  
• Villa, Leo & Gray, Tony The Record Breakers: Sir 
• Malcolm and Donald Campbell Land and Water Speed Kings of the 20th Century London 1969
• Wilson, Gordon Scribe E Grand Master’s Chapter No 1

Notwithstanding the expulsion by Edward I in 1290, the Jewish community have always enjoyed tolerance in Britain unequalled through history by any other nation. In 1655 the Amsterdam Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel successfully petitioned Oliver Cromwell to re-admit the Jews and the community began to grow slowly. From the start they embraced assimilation into wider English culture and integrated, so far as possible, into the British style of life emphasising their British nationality whilst maintaining their own Jewish traditions and way of life. It was a distinctive style of Orthodoxy which Theodor Herzl referred to as “everything English, with the old Jewish customs peeping through”.

By the mid-nineteenth century the Jewish community had taken its place in the academic, civic, educational and legal fields. In 1837, Queen Victoria knighted Moses Haim Montefiore and Isaac Lyon Goldsmid was made baronet four years later, the first Jew to receive a hereditary title. In 1855 Sir David Salomons was elected as the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London and the 1858 emancipation of the Jews finally allowed baron Lionel de Rothschild to take his seat in the House of Commons on July 26, 1858. Benjamin Disraeli, a baptised Christian of Jewish parentage, already a Member of Parliament at the time, became the first and only Jewish Prime Minister in 1874.

The first rabbinical leader of the community was Judah Loeb Cohen (1696-1700) and it was not until 1845 that the formal conferment of the title of Chief Rabbi took place, when Nathan Marcus Adler (1800-1891) was appointed to that post. The concept of a Chief Rabbi was then unique to England and broadly based on the function and duties of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is in his footsteps and with this rich history behind him, that Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie, the subject of this Masonic biography, followed.

Israel Brodie son of Aaron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 10 May 1895 and received his primary education at Rutherford College, in the same city. This followed with higher education at Jews’ College and University College in London and finally at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1917 Israel Brody enlisted in the RAF and served as a Jewish Chaplain to the Forces to the end of the war. In 1921 he worked for social services in the East End of London until an opportunity to move to Australia came up.  During Chief Rabbi Dr Joseph Hertz’s visit to Australia in 1921 Rabbi Brodie was recommended and finally appointed to replace Rabbi Dr Joseph Abrahams as chief minister of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation. He served the community from 1923 to 1937. He was the first President of the Zionist Federation of Australia and New Zealand (ZFANZ) established in 1927 to co-ordinate the activities of the State Zionist Councils of Australia under patronage of Sir John Monash. His involvement in the movement was the beginning of several controversies that marked his life. In this instance, in the light of the Jewish aspirations for a homeland in Palestine, he found himself increasingly distanced from his peers, as his objectives came more and more into conflict with British policy and administration in Palestine encountering, in some instances, outright hostility. In 1935 he was appointed to the editorial committee of the influential and revamped Australian Jewish Herald, which had first seen the light of day in 1879.

In between times, in 1933, he was initiated into Freemasonry in the Duke of Sussex Lodge No 48 under the Grand Lodge of Victoria and soon joined the Victoria Lodge of Research No 218 of which he became Master. He pursued his Masonic career by being exalted into the Collingwood Chapter in 1935, in which year he was appointed Past Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Victoria. As a minister serving in the new Melbourne Synagogue, which was completed in 1930, the early years were disappointing but soon, as a result of very active efforts by the members of the congregation a flourishing youth group was established, enthusiastic ladies auxiliary met regularly and a large religious school was formed. When Rabbi Israel Brodie, in April 1937, expressed his intention to return to England, everyone felt great disappointment.

Back in England, he applied to teach at Jews’ College, London and in 1939 he found himself once more recruited to serve as the Jewish Chaplain to the Army and the RAF. In June 1940, with some 330,000 Allied troops, he was evacuated from Dunkirk by sea to England in Operation Dynamo. He finished the War as Senior Jewish Chaplain nicknamed the Forces Rabbi. He served in the army until he was made Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth of Nations in 1948. During the whole of this period 1939, to 1948, he was active as a Lecturer and Tutor at Jew’s College, which trains rabbis and teachers and which was later renamed The London College Of Jewish Studies.

The Lodge of Israel in London welcomed him on January 25 1944 as a visitor and saluted him as a Past Grand Chaplain of the United Grand Lodge of Victoria. Within two years, on 19 November 1946, the year, incidentally, of his marriage to Fanny Levine, a native of Warsaw, he joined the Montefiore Lodge No 1017, proposed by Bro. Leslie Sober and seconded by Bro. E. Braham. His advancement to the chair was speedy. He was elected Master in November 1948 and installed at the Café Royal in London in February 1949. He was to visit the Lodge of Israel on several later occasions: on January 9^th 1958, he was received as W Bro the V Rev Israel Brody, Chief Rabbi and was accompanied by R W Bro Max Seligman, Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel. He returned again on 28 April 1960 once more accompanied by Max Seligman, now the Most Worshipful Grand Master of Israel.

By now Israel Brodie had been appointed Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation of the British Commonwealth of Nations and it is not surprising that the Montefiore Lodge attendance book for the day, which has 8 pages added listing 466 guests, including 169 Installed Masters, reads like a Masonic who’s who: the Very Rev. W. Bro. Canon Lancaster, Grand Chaplain; the Very Rev. V. W. Bro. Bishop of Woolwich; W. Bro. Nat Gordon, R.W. Master of Lodge No. 753 Glasgow leading a deputation from Scotland; W. Bro. Saul Taylor, I.P.M.; W. Bro. B. R. Gates and W. Bro. S. Barclay, Past Masters and Bro. I. Hyman, and many other distinguished visitors. The minutes record Bro Brodie’s active participation in Lodge affairs. His talks and orations were already popular and as Master his lecture on “Four Cardinal Values” was particularly well received. At the end of his year as Master the Lodge presented with leather bound volume of the Summonses issued during his year in office.

Israel Brodie became Chief Rabbi in 1948 at the age of 53 at a time when Jewry in the world at large was going through a difficult time. The Holocaust in Europe was a sensitive subject and the ending of the British Mandate in Palestine was causing continual unrest in Israel. The choice of Chief Rabbi had fallen on him because he was perceived to be a tolerant man with a  faultless English background. He proved himself a persuasive and peaceful negotiator and led the community through this period with pride and dignity. He was the founder of Conference of European Rabbis and through this entity Brodie took a significant part in rebuilding the religious life of European Jewry after the Holocaust. His several pastoral tours to Australia and New Zealand and other parts of the Commonwealth, which were recorded by his wife Fanny, who also kept notes relating to visits to Israel, Ireland, South Africa and the United States of America, strengthened the world wide Jewish community in a quiet but significant manner. Sadly the closing years of his tenure were overshadowed by religious dispute. In 1961 Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs (1920-2006) a renowned scholar of Judaism who has been referred to as “the greatest Chief Rabbi we never had” was nominated to be principal of Jews’ College. However, one of his many books, “We Have Reason to Believe” published in 1957 challenged the traditional view that the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah, were dictated by God, word by word, to Moses on Mount Sinai. As a result Brodie blocked the appointment stating that Jacobs was unfit for the post and prohibited Jacobs from returning to his post at the New West End Synagogue. The incident, known as the Jacobs Affair reverberated around the world and the resulting controversy within Orthodox scholarly circles is still alive today.

In 1954 the Very Rev. The Chief Rabbi, W Bro Rabbi Israel Brodie, was honoured by the United Grand Lodge of England with his appointment as Past Grand Chaplain and at the Meeting of the Montefiore Lodge on 28th October, he was presented with the Regalia of the Office of Past Grand Chaplain which included a scull cap made from the same blue cloth material as the apron. He wore the ‘kipa’ at all the meetings he attended. At this time, following on a minor dispute in the Montefiore Lodge in which a candidate proposed by the Bro Brodie was black balled, resulted in a the resignation of several Brethren and the withdrawal from the Lodge of Rabbi Brodie himself for several months.

Brodie’s tenure as Chief Rabbi followed on that on Joseph Herman Hertz (1913-1946) who had also ben a Freemason in the Transvaal, South Africa under Unired Grand Lodge of England attaining the rank of Past District Grand Chaplin though he took no further activity as a mason following his appointment as chief rabbi in 1913. There were several other prominent Rabbis who were active freemasons. The Lodge of Israel No. 205 initiated Rev. Moses?? A. Henry (1800-79), who later became Master of the Lodge. Henry had been headmaster of the Jewish Free School (JFS) in the East End. The Rev. Dr. Bernard Elzas and the Rev. Marcus Haines, Minister of the New West End Synagogue as well as the Rev. Isaac Goldston were all initiated in the same Lodge. In Lodge Joppa No. 188, Rev. Israel Levy Lindenthal and The Rev. David de Sola of Bevis Marks were initiated in 1846. The Rev. Aaron Barnett Levy was a Chaplain of the Lodge of Tranquillity (1855-7) and The Rev. Dr. George Joseph Emanuel of Birmingham was initiated in 1861. Also the Rev. Morris Rosenbaum, Past Provincial Grand Chaplain (Northumberland), the Masonic historian was an active freemason as was the Rev Rayehael Levy, father of Elkan D Levy a colleague and close friend whose assistance with this article I am glad to acknowledge here and now. In 1969 Israel Brodie was made a Knight of the British Empire “for services to British Jewry” the first Chief Rabbi to be so honoured and a year later, in 1970 he was made an honorary member of Montefiore Lodge.

Brodie died on 20^th February 1979.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Brodie, Very Rev. Sir Israel, Past G.Chap., Newcastle  100:234
• Brodie, Very Rev. Sir Israel, Past G.Chap. (1954)  92:36, 50, 58
• Levy, Elkan D Historical Notes on www.chiefrabbi.org The 
• Website of the Chief Rabbi
• Silverman Montefiore Lodge No. 1017, London
• Shaftsley, John M Jews in English Freemasonry in the 18^th & 19^th Centuries AQC 92  (1954)

by W. Bro. Yasha Beresiner

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David Garrick (1717-1779).

There have been persistent and erroneous reports of David Garricks’  involvement with Freemasonry and his membership of the St. Paul’s Lodge No. 194 chartered in 1790. The error is already manifest in that very date, as by the time the Lodge was chartered, Garrick had already been dead for over a decade. The persistent error of his Masonic membership emanates from a gift of an enamel snuff box made to St Paul’s Lodge in February 1848 by Brother Alex Kirkaldy of the Palatine Lodge, No. 114, which had originally belonged to David Garrick and had been bequeathed by his widow to one Stephen Kemble. Unfortunately the Secretary of the Lodge, in the minutes of February 1848, chose to record this presentation with the following unwarranted comment: ‘This precious relic originally belonged to that eminent Tragedian & Brother Mason Garrick’. This item from the minutes was again quoted in the History of St Paul’s Lodge, No 194 – 1770-1926 by Bro C Edgar Thomas published in 1926 and has been perpetrated ever since. As an interesting note, the error of Garrick’s membership of the Craft and his involvement with St Paul’s Lodge was compounded after the theft of the original enamel snuff box in 1889. It was replaced with a silver snuff box, still in use today, which has the misleading inscription inside the lid reading: ‘. . . this snuff box replaces the one presented to the lodge by Bro. David Garrick . . . ”

There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that David Garrick was ever a member of the Craft.

Ashmole was born in May 1617 in Staffordshire, England. A talented and ambitious man, he was able to fulfil many of his dreams after his second marriage to the wealthy Lady Mainwaring, 20 years his senior. He retired at the age of 25 and pursued personal interests thereafter. During 1645 and 1646, crucial years in the English Civil War, Ashmole’s political and military careers developed on parallel lines. In March 1646 he was made a Captain in the King’s Army and he witnessed the defeat of King Charles by Cromwell three months later. He returned to Smallwood and on 16 October 1646.

Elias Ashmole was made a freemason in Warrington. This is the  first evidence of the  initiation of an English ‘speculative’ i.e. non-operative,  mason. That is notwithstanding the fact that those present would have obviously been initiated at an earlier date. His initiation took place at 4.30 in the afternoon. The precise time can be given because he kept a daily diary now housed in the Bodeleian Library in Oxford. But many questions arise regarding his initiation. What was the exact nature of the Lodge in which Ashmole was initiated? In the whole of his extensive manuscript annotations that comprise his diary, there are only two references to his Masonic activities, dated 1646 and 1682. The names of those present in 1646, as listed by Ashmole, are uncontested. None of those present belonged to the stonemasons trade. The Lodge, however, will have consisted of several additional members not present at the initiation and who may well have been working operative stonemasons. There are two perennial questions raised with regard to Elias Ashmole’s initiation: Why did he join? And why is there no other mention of freemasonry in his extensive diaries until his visit to London in 1682?

The answers may lie in the fact that at the time freemasonry was not an organisation of particular consequence or sufficient importance for Elias Ashmole to make additional annotations. Ashmole may have joined because by nature he was a joiner. He may not have been able to resisted the temptation to discover the nature of what even then was a mysterious association and he may well have found nothing of consequence in the fraternity for further comment or record. There is the added possibility that in the quite and secretive ambiance of a Masonic meeting he was able to meet with unnamed intellectual colleagues to discuss those aspects of esoteric and hermetic studies very much experimental in the scientific world at the time.

Ashmole was an extraordinarily accomplished man. By 1648 he had extended his studies in Astrology and Anatomy to Botany and Alchemy. This last subject was to occupy him considerably and he wrote several books on the subject, the first in 1650. He was undoubtedly fascinated with esoteric and hermetic studies. He often consulted oracles. Yet Ashmole made a point of not allowing his enthusiasm for alchemy to obscure his historical research and he never saw himself as a practicing alchemist. He may have attended MAsonic meetings, unrecorded in his diary until the summons to the Masons Company in London in 1682.

It is now that he mentions freemasonry for the second and only additional time in the 2000 odd pages of his diaries. The entry is dated 10^th March 1682, thirty-five years after his initiation. The same curios questions arise in this instance as they did with regard to the first entry. What ceremony did Ashmole exactly attend in London? He was The Senior Fellow among them, thus he was a speculative freemason attending a gathering in an operative environment of the Masons Company of London. What was he doing there? The recorded ceremony of the acception in the Masons Company has yet to be explained. It appears to be a ‘club within the club’ to which selected individuals were admitted as members. Ashmole’s presence here may be seen as evidence, or at least suggest, that Ashmole’s own lodge into which he was initiated in 1646 was of a similar composition. Elias Ashmole, in 1646, may well have experienced in an operative Lodge an aspect of an acception ceremony he was to attend several decades later in London.

Ashmole may have found access to an esoteric content of freemasonry in some or other aspect of the Craft proceedings. He may have had colleagues similarly inclined. There are interesting hints in the diary annotations at the nature of Masonic activity at the time. Colonel Henry Mainwaring, with whom Ashmole was initiated, was a Roundhead parliamentarian friend, diametrically opposed to the Royalists who Ashmole supported. The implication is that freemasonry, from these very early days, recognised no political boundaries. The structure of the Lodge is also hinted at by the significant reference to Richard Penkett as a Warden. Furthermore Ashmole took his obligation on the Sloane Manuscript, a hand written ancient charge, which appears to have been expressly composed for the ceremony of his initiation. Thus we see that the structure of freemasonry has been reasonably consistent through the centuries and that whilst the structure, or  format, of the institution did not change over the years, the content, the ritual and ceremony and, more importantly, the academic quality of its membership, may well have been diluted. The departure of academics and their replacement by ‘Gentlemen’ may have caused a decline in quality over the years. By 1717 the Society may well have altered completely, emerging finally as just another one of he many London clubs of the period.

Although the Premier Grand Lodge was formed on 24 June 1717, it was not until exactly 6 years later, on 24 June 1723 that the first Secretary to the Grand Lodge, William Cowper, was appointed. It is only after this date that minutes of Grand Lodge began to be kept. There are no records of any kind of the activities of Grand Lodge before June 1723. The historic report of the events that took place on that fateful day in June 1717, are only to be encountered some twenty years later, in Anderson’s second edition, The New Book of Constitutions published in 1738. It is from these Constitutions that we know that on the day at the feast, the Brethren by a Majority of Hands elected Mr Anthony Sayer Gentleman, Grand Master of Masons. Anthony Sayer (1672-1742) proclaimed George Payne (d 1757) as his successor in 1718; these two Brethren were the only two commoners to be elected Grand Master.

Every early indication points at our Society as a fun, dining and charitable institution from the start. The lack of any minutes and rules or regulations at the start is in line with an organisation not taking itself too seriously: 1717 to 1723, six years of unregulated activity. At the time there were several dozen other similar institutions. What was it that assured the success of Freemasonry beyond any of the other contemporary organisations? The answer is simple: the Freemasons were able to recruit members of the nobility, and soon, Royalty itself, to join the Craft. There was a price to be paid, however: Constitutions. Nobility and aristocracy would not join a Society without orderly regulations. This fact leads to the more important and difficult question: what inducement did a member of the aristocracy have at the time to join freemasonry?

Since 1718 the appointment of Grand Master was only afforded to Brethren of great distinction, of the aristocracy, nobility and royalty. The first of these, the third Grand Master to be elected in 1719, was the Reverend John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683-1744).  He graduated from Oxford with a Doctorate of Civil Law, having taken his holy orders in 1710. Four years later he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and became the Curator of this most prestigious scientific institute. Here then, the question already posed has to be repeated. What could have possibly been whispered into the ear of so prominent a man as Desaguliers, the author of books on experimental philosophy, closely associated with the aristocracy and Royalty, as to persuade him to become a freemason? It is my view that Freemasonry and the Royal Society had very little indeed in common at this or any other time. There is no real evidence, beyond the circumstance surrounding Ashmole mentioned above, that we freemasons have had secrets associated with Hermetic philosophy, the Kabbalah or other similar mystical schools of thought. Outsiders have maliciously associated our organisation with a series of tasteless activities, ranging from sorcery and witchcraft to idolatry and devil worship.

The Royal Society, on the other hand, during this early period at the turn of the 18^th Century, focused its scientific research on what was then referred to as alternative philosophy the same experimental philosophy in which John Theophilus Desaguliers, our Grand Master to be, excelled. Here were a group of scientists, respected through the world, whose daily research, in simplistic terms, revolved around esoteric and hermetic studies and the secrets of nature. There was a standing understanding that the revelation of the one yet to be discovered secret of nature could transform the scientific world. It would allow the fulfilment of the study of alchemy and convert basic metal to gold. Through the one secret of nature, yet unknown, communication with those who had passed beyond would be possible. It was in this environment of serious study that the Royal Society members would have heard of the formation of a body calling themselves Freemasons, who had a secret known only to them. It is possible that, notwithstanding the conviction that the secrets of any such inconsequential body as the Freemasons, could not be of any scientific importance, someone had to ensure that that was indeed the case. Although Elias Ashmole and his ilk had been both Freemasons and members of the Royal Society before the turn of the Century, their views and outlook of Freemasonry would have been clearly of a different perspective to that of the organised Freemasonry that was launched in June 1717.

John Theophilus Desaguliers, Curator and respected member of the Royal Society, was selected or may have chosen himself to investigate this newly set up organisation. On being initiated into our secrets and mysteries and admitted a member of the Craft, the new candidate, Bro Desaguliers, would have quickly discovered that there were no secrets among the masons, beyond traditional forms of recognition. Here, he would have found the true spirit of brotherly love, relief and truth prevailing. His very high social standing will have certainly induced the Grand Lodge to offer him the highest possible office from the outset, which he may well have accepted. This would explain why there appears to be so little, if any, information about Desaguliers prior to his appointment as Grand Master in 1719.

Enchanted by the camaraderie of our institution and true to his obligation, on his return to the Royal Society, Desaguliers would have rather persuaded his colleagues to join the fraternity than disclose the inconsequential secrets he had learnt and sworn to observe. This then may well have been the beginning of the involvement of the aristocracy in our midst. The Constitutions were written at the instigation of Desaguliers who, no doubt, had the future of the Institution at heart and the Aristocracy, nobility and royalty in his head. He brought with him Lord Montgomery our first Noble Grand Master. Clearly with the presence and membership of such distinguished Brethren some rules and regulations for the comportment of the Brethren became necessary. Thus Grand Master Desagulier instructed James Anderson to compose or ‘digest’ the Constitutions and secure the continued patronage of Nobility and Royalty, which England has enjoyed ever since.

There are an infinite number of unanswered and unanswerable questions in the rich history of freemasonry and they will continue to baffle and delight historians for ever.

Selected Bibliography and Sources

• Baigent, Michael Freemasonry, Hermetic Thought and The Royal Society of London, AQC 109, 1996
• Carr, Harry; Haunch T O and others, Grand Lodge 1717-1967, Oxford 1967
• Josten C H, Elias Ashmole, Oxford, 1966
• Page, Bryan F., Elias Ashmole The First recorded English Freemason, Prestonian Lecture for 1988.
• Rogers, Norma, The Lodge of Elias Ashmole, 1646 , AQC 65, 1952
• Tuckett J E S Dr Richard Rawlinson and the Masonic Entries in Elias 
• Ashmole’s Diary, AQC 25 1912
• Ward, Eric Anderson’s Constitutions Oxon 1976
• Weisberger, William R John Theophilus Desaguliers: Promoter of the Enlightenment and of Speculative Freemasonry , AQC 112, 2000

by W. Bro. Yasha Beresiner

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INTRODUCTION

YOUTH
Tom Barnardo was born in Dublin, the son of a furrier. Little detail of his unhappy childhood has emerged. His reports from St. Patrick’s Cathedral Grammar School in Dublin show him to have been rebellious and an agitator, easily bored by lessons and whilst talented with eloquence he appears to have been confrontational and argumentative. He was unsuccessful with his public school exams and at 16 chose to cease his studies in favour of a short-lived apprenticeship to a wine merchant. A year later, in May 1862, Barnardo converted to become an Evangelical Christian and took to his newly acquired persuasion with zest and passion. He became impatient to convert others, teaching Bible classes in a Dublin ragged school and getting involved in home visiting.

RELIGION
His membership, with his whole immediate family, of the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian Evangelical religious movement, was to change his life. The movement, begun in Dublin in the 1820s by a group of prominent Christians, included Dr Edward Cronin, a pioneer of homoeopathy, Dr Edward Wilson, George Müller, founder of the Bristol Orphanage, and Anthony Norris, missionary to Baghdad and India, among others. They felt that the Established Church had become too involved with the secular state and had abandoned many of the basic truths of Christianity. The movement spread rapidly and in 1831, by which time the membership had swelled to some 1,500,  they met in Plymouth, England soon to be nicknamed the ‘Plymouth Brethren’. Barnardo’s experiences in the ragged school, his continued preaching and teaching and his exposure to other philanthropists, James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), the British Protestant Christian missionary, in particular, led him to choose a medical missionary career in China. With the help of his Dublin friends Barnardo gained introductions and registered as a medical student in the prestigious London Hospital, now the Royal London Hospital, adjoining Whitechapel Road, in 1866.

MEDICINE
Again, there is little information of his early years in London. He found residence in Stepney, close to the hospital, where he continued with his religious activities at the expense of his studies. In his first year as a medical student, in November 1867, he held the first of his many fund-raising meeting, the success of which enabled him to set up his own ragged school: The East End Juvenile Mission. Famously, a young boy in the mission by the name of Jim Jarvis took Barnardo around the squalor and devastation of the East End. The images of children sleeping in the gutter and on roof tops so impressed Barnardo that he decided to forgo his plans of work in China and dedicated himself to the destitute children of London. He walked the streets of the slum district and brought back to the mission destitute boys. Within three years he opened the initial home for boys at 18 Stepney Causeway in 1870. The first thirty-three inhabitants were all older youths. Some could afford to pay whilst others were given work in the home whilst being taught how to fit into society. All the boys were treated equally, they were fed and clothed and prepared to face better lives. In 1872, the year of the publication of his well-received book How it all Happened, he married Sara Louise (Syrie) Elmslie. A year later, with her enthusiastic assistance, he established the first home for girls, which opened at Mossford Lodge, in 1873 and reached a peak in 1883 with the Village Home for Girls in Ilford, which was a complete community with seventy cottages, its own school, a laundry and church, and a population of over 1,000 children.

Meanwhile his medical studies and status in the hospital suffered at the expense of all these extra-curricular activity. Fellow students complained of his religious enthusiasm and it took Barnardo almost a decade to take up and continue his medical career. A letter he wrote to the Justus Liebig-Universität Gießen, the University of Giessen, Germany in 1875, now in the archives of Barnardo’s in Barkingside, Essex, is both revealing and self-explanatory:

I became a medical student at the London Hospital in 1867 and entered Durham University the previous September and registered as a medical student in June 1868. I duly attended all hospital practice, medical and surgical for four years. In July 1869 I passed the first professional examination in anatomy and physiology at the Royal College of Surgeons, England, and hope to go up for the final examination in April next. The reason why I have not proceeded to qualify fully before this is that in 1870 I abandoned the study of medicine and took up the philanthropic work of rescuing destitute children from the streets of our great cities, much of the same character as your own celebrated Dr. Wichern of Hamburg.

Although I did not proceed with my studies I am generally called Dr. Barnardo and enclose my card . . . (I) shall be glad to know if you can allow me to be examined by your University early in December . . . Kindly let me know the subjects of examination. I can give testimonials of my professional knowledge etc. by respectable English medical men, if you will kindly tell me what you require, and I enclose in proof of the truth of my first statements two certificates of registration, which please return when you reply. Also state the amount of fees required . . .

Nothing appears to have resulted from this appeal and Barnardo continued his studies and obtained his diploma in April 1876 as a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons. He returned to London and registered as a medical practitioner and exactly three years later, on 16 April 1879 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

PHILANTHROPY
He now dedicated himself with full vigour to the establishment of his homes and training schemes. He had initially rented canal-side warehouses and converted them to schools, later acquiring numerous properties in East London. He established an Evangelical mission church, set up facilities and provided for the disabled and those with special needs. His commitments had become such that he needed ever more innovative methods to raise funds, often overrunning available resources. Here is where his particular expertise came into play. His great success relied on his capacity to organize mass charity events and raise funds for his projects. Much of the money for his schemes came, in small amounts, from a large number of donors including children. They were encouraged to give through an organisation he founded in 1891 called The Young Helpers’ League. At the time of Barnardo’s death, nearly fifteen years later, the membership of the enterprise had grown to 34,000. Barnardo knew how to present his schemes and plans and gained important support in doing so. A powerful and persuasive orator, he had already gained the support of Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1885) and of the banker, Robert Barclay (1843-1921). Shaftesbury Avenue, in the West End of London, was completed in 1886, and named in his memory. While using the course of existing streets, it demolished some of the worst slums, which Lord Shaftsbury had campaigned to eliminate from the area.

FREEMASONRY
In November 1889, at the height of his philanthropic career and at the mature age of 44, Thomas John Barnardo was initiated into Freemasonry in the Shadwell Clerke Lodge No. 1910 at the Hotel Cecil in the Strand. The Lodge, warranted on 22 April 1881, was founded in November 1882 in honour of Colonel Shadwell H. Clerke, PSGD who had been appointed Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England two and half years earlier. Barnardo’s progress through the three degrees took place in the old-fashioned way: one degree a year. He was passed on 23 June 1890 and raised on 8 October 1891. Barnardo did not take much active part in Freemasonry; he did not take office though he continued his full membership to his dying day. It is interesting to speculate as to what may have induced him to become a freemason. In his youth he had been an avid reader of Jean-Jacques Rousseau [no comma before bracketed passage] (1712-1778), the positive Swiss-born French [only from 1741 onwards, before moving to Luxembourg in 1757, fleeing to Switzerland in 1762 and then to England and back to Paris in 1767, but died insane] philosopher and writer and of Thomas Paine (1737- [hyphen, not en-dash] 1809), the English intellectual, political and religious thinker. Both men, though not freemasons, advocated philosophies with which masonic thinking, fashionable in the 1880s, not least because of Royal patronage,  would be in sympathy. Indeed, Thomas Paine published his own theory on the origins of Freemasonry, which today remains only of interest as an historical curiosity. More importantly, however, a greater influence on Barnardo to become a freemason may have emanated form two friendship with Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853-1936) the American-born British pharmaceutical entrepreneur. Here was a dedicated and very active freemason, whose closeness to Barnardo was, at a later stage, greatly enhanced when in 1901, Wellcome married Gwendolin Maud Syrie, Barnardo’s daughter. Curiously, Henry Wellcome’s excessive masonic activities, inter alia, were cited by his wife as to the cause of the separation between the two, which ended in a divorce in 1915, with W. Somerset Maugham being named as a co-respondent . . ., but that is another story!

The Lodge records show that at a Lodge of Emergency held on 6 September 1889 at the Masonic Hall, Red Lion Square, London, Thomas John Barnardo, Esq, MRCS, aged forty [sic] was proposed by the Lodge Secretary, W Bro C.F. Matier and seconded by the Senior Warden, Bro W.C. Gilles. Bro Matier later became Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons (1889-1914) as well as Great Vice-Chancellor in the Great Priory of Knights Templar (1896-1914). Barnardo was balloted for and elected. At the same meeting Douglas Heron Marrable, Esq was also elected. Rather unusually, the Initiation, which took place at the next meeting on 25 November 1889, was an Installation meeting. RW Bro Major-General Lord John Henry Taylour, PJGW (1831-1890), was in the Chair as Master and immediately following the Initiation ceremony, Barnardo’s seconder, Bro William Charles Gilles, was installed in the Chair of King Solomon. The visitors included VW Bro Colonel Shadwell H. Clerke himself, RW Bro The Rt Hon the Earl of Euston, Provincial Grand Master of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire, RW Bro General I.W. Laurie, District Grand Master of Nova Scotia, Canada, VW Bro Frederick Adolphus Philbrick, QC, Grand Registrar and Great Chancellor of KT and 32° in the A & A R and a well known philatelist, among others. There is no record of Douglas Marrable, who had been elected with Barnardo. At this meeting it was decided that the Lodge would move from the Masonic Hall, Red Lion Square to Mark Masons’ Hall at Great Queen Street, where the next regular meeting was held on 23 June 1890.  It was W Bro William Charles Gilles’s first meeting in the Chair and a busy one – with five candidates for the Fellowcraft degree. Bro Barnardo was passed to the second degree together with the following additional Brethren: Bros H.F. Matthews, J.L. Grossmith and Bros Newton, South and Savory, who were passed at the request of the Master of the Grafton Lodge No. 2347. Barnardo’s Raising coincided with a tragic event, the death of the newly elected Master of the Lodge, W Bro James MacDonald, who was killed on a railway line on 15 August 1891. A Lodge of Emergency was held on 8 October 1891 at Mark Masons’ Hall and Bro Barnardo was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason, by the Immediate Past Master, W Bro W.C. Gilles, together with Bros Pirie, Cummins and Fullilove. The only other mention of Bro Thomas Barnardo in the Lodge records is a resolution recorded for 25 September 1905 in which: ‘The W.M. proposed and W Bro H.F. Matthews seconded that a letter of condolence and sympathy be sent to Mrs Barnardo on the loss of her husband, our Brother Dr. Barnardo. This was unanimously agreed.’

CONTROVERSY
Thomas Barnardo was a controversial character by any standards. Some dispute his right to have used the term ‘Doctor’. He tended to ignore the various bodies and councils who set financial budgets and limits on the number of children to be cared for or ‘boarded out’. Boarding out was a fostering scheme started in 1887 when three hundred and thirty boys aged between five and nine were sent to ‘good country homes’ far from the slums and parishes in which they had lived. In 1893 there were more than 2,000 children boarded out. Barnardo was criticized for his lack of regard for what parents and the children themselves thought. He was an autocrat and imposed his thinking upon others. Another scheme, which was criticized and even resisted, was his plan to ‘board out’ illegitimate babies with their mothers who were encouraged to go into service with an approved employer. Many charities refused to offer help to such mothers as it was a seen as rewarding immorality. A very important scheme of great concern and much criticized was that of child migration. Between 1882 and 1939 the agency sent over 30,000 children to Canada. The attitude of the agencies sending children to Canada, Australia and other countries was that they were providing them with a new start as they had no prospects in Britain and their families were seen as failing to provide adequate care for them. Arguments were put forward that Dr Barnardo was the most influential figure in the child migration of the last half of the nineteenth century and he was accused of ‘spiriting’ children away to Canada against the wishes of their parents. This was emphasized by a number of court battles. Several more accusations were directed at Barnardo, many with no justification whatever: that the homes were badly managed; that the boys were cruelly treated; that there was no religious or moral training and that published photographs were falsified and intended to deceive the public. Barnardo was also personally attacked and charged with improperly appropriating funds for his own benefit. At one stage Barnardo decided to go to arbitration under an Order of Court. In October 1877, the Arbitrators vindicated Barnardo stating that there was no evidence to support any of the charges laid against him.

DEATH
Thomas Barnardo was a great and charismatic philanthropist. He believed in what he did. He had huge abilities, especially to network and to present his work in a way that opened purse strings. He was a hard worker, with infinite projects and plans. And most importantly, he was exceedingly successful. It was inevitable that he would provoke gossip, speculation and even antagonism. His life-style took its toll and by the age of fifty Barnardo had some sort of heart complaint. He ignored Doctor’s orders to take a period of absolute rest and died on 19 September 1905 having spent a busy day and settled in an easy chair by the fireside.

The good he did lives after him.

POSTSCRIPT: 
Barnardo’s stopped running homes for orphans over thirty years ago, but the work today is based on the same set of values on which the charity was first founded. Since 1867 the services provided have changed and they will continue to do so in order to meet the needs of children and young people of today. However, the aim to help children and young people in the greatest need, stays the same.

Bibliography & Acknowledgments

• Barnardo’s on line @ www.goldonian.org
• David Foster, Secretary, Shadwell Clerke Lodge No 1910, for special efforts
• Bruce Hogg, my grateful thanks for able and professional advise and proof reading.
• Hitchman, J. They Carried the Sword. The Barnardo story, Gollancz, London (1966).
• Wagner, G. Barnardo, Weidenfeld and Nicolson London (1979)
• Smith, M. K. ‘Thomas John Barnardo (‘the Doctor’)’, online @ www.infed.org
• Wymer, Norman Father of Nobody’s Children Longmans, London (1962)

by W. Bro. Yasha Beresiner

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