Swords With a Story.

Regular readers will know that I encouraged Lodges to consider 1995 as the year of the stocktake, a year in which Lodges would possibly even start the conservation and preservation of wonderfully rich items of British history. I was pleased with the response for copies of the factsheet on preserving our records and astounded by the history that surrounds many pieces of Lodge furniture, one of the most exciting yet most neglected item is the Tyler’s Sword. I will not go on to talk about the role of the Tyler here as that is already superbly documented but a number of Lodges throughout England contacted me regarding their treasures that I thought that I would share some of them with you.

Many of these ‘ceremonial’ swords turned out to be working tools before they entered the Lodge. I started with the Tyler’s’ sword from Yarborough Lodge no. 554. Their secretary told me that it was presented by a member of the Lodge who was a serving captain aboard a ship at the battle of Trafalgar in 1804! The Lodge minutes record that he wore this sword during this historic occasion. On my requesting a photo of this piece of history David Sullivan found that it had gone missing from the locker room, fortunately it reappeared, being ‘borrowed’ by another Lodge. A happy ending for Yaborough Lodge.

Another sword which has a superb pedigree is that used by Maguncor Lodge 3806 constituted in September 1917 consisting of serving members of the Machine Gun Corps prior to it’s posting to France during World War one. Their sword served in Gourzeacourt in September 1918 when it’s owner was an officer in the 4th. Battalion Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regt. During this campaign Lt. William Allison White was awarded the Victoria Cross for most conspicuous bravery and initiative in attack “ When the advance of the infantry was delayed by an enemy M.G .he rushed the gun position single handed and shot the 3 gunners” he then went on to attack another two machine gun positions successfully. This Lodge had the honour of having another VC winner as a past master. Major J.P Huffam. These days whenever an apron is presented in Maguncor Lodge it is draped over this very sword.

During the second world war another Sword was in use, this time by the enemy! In 1945 Bro. Sgt Bob Pemberton one of the founder members of Priory Lodge no. 6027 found himself posted to the far east for ‘Operation Zipper’. The plan was to cut Malaya in half the British to operate from the north the Americans from the south to deal with the enemy in the centre. On route the Atomic bombs were dropped and the Japanese surrendered so Sgt Pemberton found himself supporting the Gurkas at Seramban just south of Kuala Lumpa. Bob managed to ‘liberate’ a Junior officers sword as a trophy that just happened to be the right size to fit into his kit bag. On the return journey dire warnings were given to the soldiery regarding the importing of guns, explosives and ammunition followed by the furtive sounds of splashing in the dark of night just off the English coastline. Young Bob debated the issue and decided that a sword did not fit into the previous categories of contraband and subsequently was truly relieved when on disembarkation in dear old Blightey he was waved through with no formalities whatsoever. However when he showed his proud possession to his father he was informed that it would make a useful donation to the new Lodge that his Dad was to be founder of and that which Bob was to join. So the sword was liberated yet again! It was used in March1995 to cut the cake at The Priory Lodges’ 50th anniversary celebrations and is one of their most prized items.

Not all of the swords were used in battle, one of my favourite swords bearing a wonderful name is used by Fitzroy Lodge no.569. This is the ‘proprietors Sword’ being owned and used by an ex Lord Mayor of London and given to the Lodge in his 90th year. A superb example of a civic ceremonial sword bearing the city’s coat of arms on the guard. Inscribed “ The Aldermanic sword of the Right Worshipful Bro. Sir Frank E Newson-Smith BT. DCL. MA. Initiated 1910 WM. 1930 & 1944 presented to the Lodge in 1968 prior to his death in 1971. For many years he was director of ceremonies in Fitzroy Lodge and in consequence he became known as ‘the proprietor’ a most fitting description for a dedicated freemason ”. I agree what a wonderful nickname for an obviously well loved mason.

My last sword, there were so many to choose from but space is short, is on record as actually drawing blood! Typically it is another seafaring sword, or rather cutlass, belonging to Navy Lodge no.2612 . This cutlass is notorious for having escaped from it’s scabbard in the Locker room in Gt. Queen St. In the 1970’s and pining the Tyler’s foot to the deck! The Tyler Wbro. Chief Yeoman of signals G Burchfield had served in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and had emerged totaly unscathed only to wounded in peace time, on Land, out of uniform and by a British weapon! Unfortunately it has escaped again perhaps being borrowed by another Tyler for a Lodge who has forgotten from whence it came. If your Lodge is using it please would you return it in time for the Naval Lodge centenary Friday 14th June 1996 where no questions will be asked but I am sure a place will be reserved at the meeting and festive board for a member of the returning Lodge. (Note. This is cmdr highams lodge and request.)
Lets hope like my first story this one ends happily, however it does serve to illustrate the need to photograph all our furniture and chattels not only for our records but also to identify our property should it surface sometime in the future after being placed ‘somewhere safe’, there are a number of Lodges who would like to return borrowed artefacts but have no records or recolections of who loaned them the items. This hapens particularly where tylers, secretarys etc belong to more than one Lodge. If your Lodge has an item of interest please send us a photograph together with the story and we will publish a selection in the future.
































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































THE craft and Lifeboats.

Freemasonry’s connection with the RNLI goes back as far as1871 when the first Masonic lifeboat was purchased at the institution of the Lodge of Faith 147 who had raised £260.00 (£12,203.00 today) and petitioned Grand lodge via Wbro. J R Stebbing deputy provincial grand master of Hampshire to sanction the extra funding for a lifeboat. The existing boat at North Berwick was due to be replaced due to decay thus presenting the Grand Lodge with an opportunity to provide the lifeboat “Freemasons” a 30 foot long 10 double banked oars state of the art vessel. Added to this was the provision of a lifeboat carriage, she was launched in 1871 and continued in service until 1887 having been launched five times and saving ten lives.
Continuing the tradition is this year’s presentation by the Lodge of Harmony number 255 of “Valerie Wilson” to the Lifeboat station at Newquay. This new craft is the 12th. Lifeboat paid for by English Freemasons. The Lodge of Harmony and the chapter of Isis raised the complete funding for the purchase of a new prototype ‘D’ class inshore rescue boat complete with onboard kit as well as pagers for the station crews. The craft was founded in memory of the late wife of Very Worshipful brother Leslie Wilson DPGM of Middlesex who had spent a happy part of her early youth in Cornwall. Of course substantial individual cash donations from Lodges are still continuing to been made to the RNLI in order to assist them to continue their voluntary work which receives no government funding whatsoever.

In 1876 The Prince of Wales returned safely from his Indian Travels and the Grand Lodge at it’s Quarterly communication in the June of that year moved the following resolution “ That this Grand Lodge desires to return it’s humble and hearty thanks to the Almighty Architect of the Universe for the safe return to his native land of their beloved Grand Master, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales...”
A committee was formed to deal with this proposal and reported d in the October that “The Sum of £4,000. (Approx £187k today) be voted to the Royal National Life-boats Institution for the purpose of founding two life boat stations in perpetuity…” The committee had a number of issues to deal with, they desired that the lifeboats be placed in area not already covered by the service, that the location for the stations must prove practicable for efficient operation together with the availability of enough personnel to run the stations. The village of Clacton on Sea had an immense expanse of quicksand in front of it and was subject to regular shipwrecks, the next location was found on the rock bound coast of Devon Hope Cove commanded the storm beaten coast of the west and also had excellent communication links with the Busy lifeboat station at Salcombe. The craft were to be known as “ Albert Edward” and “ Alexandra” So in June 1878 the official Launching and dedication of “ Alexandra “ took place at Kingsbridge Devon presided over by the REV J Huyshe PGM watched by some 4,000 spectators. A month later in Clacton the “ Albert Edward” was officially launched by the DPGM Lord Skelmersdale to an even larger audience. “Albert Edward” had already proved it’s value as early on in the morning of the 23rd. May only a few weeks after it had been delivered to the station it was launched in anger. The brig “Garland” on a voyage from Shields to London ran aground on the Gunfleet sands and was seen to be breaking up and filling with water. The Albert Edward took three hours to reach the stricken vessel and rescue the six men and three-boy crew.

A Grand Lodge report of March 1884 contained the following item “ That the Sum of 50 Guineas (£3,056.00 today) be granted to the family of the late James Cross and a similar sum to the family of Thomas Cattermole, two of the crew of the “ Albert Edward” Lifeboat at Clacton on Sea, which boat was presented to the National Life Boat Institution by Grand Lodge. These two men, after having assisted, the first in saving 116 and the second 33 lives having lost their own in the discharge of their duty on the night of the 23rd January last, whilst in their boat endeavouring to rescue the crew of a vessel in Distress, Leaving their families consisting of a widow and Six children and a widow and three children entirely destitute”. A subscription had also been raised locally for these poor unfortunates and the Grand Master presented medals to the crew of the lifeboat.

Freemasons do not only contribute their money to the RNLI but many stations have freemasons among the crews as I discovered when I visited the Southend on Sea Lifeboat station in Essex this summer. This station is peculiar owing to the fact that it is the only one to have three craft and two launch stations, the first one on the shore and the second is actually one mile out to sea! For those who do not know, the Pier at Southend is the worlds longest and the station is right at the end of it.
Of the 80 plus members of the on and offshore crew I found at least three Freemasons. One is a member of the boat crew whose day job is as a supermarket manager, Wbro. Michael Patterson (Evening Star lodge) after 22 years in the networking industry has recently joined as the station training co-ordinator and my Guide Wbro. Jim Mackie is the local press officer for the area. Jim is well known by the freemasons in Southend, as he is a member of St Margaret’s lodge as well as other degrees, his day job was as the foreshore officer for the borough. He was in charge of a seven-mile stretch of the coast and the pier ensuring that local safety byelaws were met. Following his retirement Jim decided to join the shore crew of the lifeboat station and keep his connection with the pier. I assumed that as the pier was the longest in the world that all the crewmembers must be budding Linford Christie’s, it is a long haul to get to the lifeboats when the tide is out. However all was revealed in the transport department, Jim showed me a range of retired Post office cycles as well as the little yellow emergency bus complete with blue lights and sirens for use on the pier. The two craft at the end of the pier can be launched fully manned by a hoist designed to Lloyds of London specifications, Mostly the crews are called out to assist broken down jet skiers or Windsurfers who have been blown out to sea and got caught by the changing winds. There had not been any callouts for two weeks on the day I attended so I was treated to a man over board rescue drill by the team, but true to form the following day the three craft were called out all day long to assist a fleet of racing ships which had been caught by gales. Some of the boats’ masts had broken others had turned over it was a hectic day for these volunteers. Last year some 7,365 people were rescued and in addition the beach rescue teams were called out to 6,528 incidents with 22 lives being saved. The Masonic Lifeboats have launched 652 times and saved in excess of 1037 lives during the 132-year connection between the RNLI and the Craft. For more information on the life boat service and how your lodge can help please contact/
Royal National Lifeboat Institution. West Quay Road. Poole. Dorset BH15 1HZ. Telephone 01202 663000. [url=http://www.lifeboats.org.uk]The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea[/url]

Sources.
The Masonic Illustrated. David Peabody photo collection. Freemasonry and Lifeboats Wbro. F E Dean. RNLI Southend Station Press office.







































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Swords With a Story.

Regular readers will know that I encouraged Lodges to consider 1995 as the year of the stocktake, a year in which Lodges would possibly even start the conservation and preservation of wonderfully rich items of British history. I was pleased with the response for copies of the factsheet on preserving our records and astounded by the history that surrounds many pieces of Lodge furniture, one of the most exciting yet most neglected item is the Tyler’s Sword. I will not go on to talk about the role of the Tyler here as that is already superbly documented but a number of Lodges throughout England contacted me regarding their treasures that I thought that I would share some of them with you.

Many of these ‘ceremonial’ swords turned out to be working tools before they entered the Lodge. I started with the Tyler’s’ sword from Yarborough Lodge no. 554. Their secretary told me that it was presented by a member of the Lodge who was a serving captain aboard a ship at the battle of Trafalgar in 1804! The Lodge minutes record that he wore this sword during this historic occasion. On my requesting a photo of this piece of history David Sullivan found that it had gone missing from the locker room, fortunately it reappeared, being ‘borrowed’ by another Lodge. A happy ending for Yaborough Lodge.

Another sword which has a superb pedigree is that used by Maguncor Lodge 3806 constituted in September 1917 consisting of serving members of the Machine Gun Corps prior to it’s posting to France during World War one. Their sword served in Gourzeacourt in September 1918 when it’s owner was an officer in the 4th. Battalion Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regt. During this campaign Lt. William Allison White was awarded the Victoria Cross for most conspicuous bravery and initiative in attack “ When the advance of the infantry was delayed by an enemy M.G .he rushed the gun position single handed and shot the 3 gunners” he then went on to attack another two machine gun positions successfully. This Lodge had the honour of having another VC winner as a past master. Major J.P Huffam. These days whenever an apron is presented in Maguncor Lodge it is draped over this very sword.

During the second world war another Sword was in use, this time by the enemy! In 1945 Bro. Sgt Bob Pemberton one of the founder members of Priory Lodge no. 6027 found himself posted to the far east for ‘Operation Zipper’. The plan was to cut Malaya in half the British to operate from the north the Americans from the south to deal with the enemy in the centre. On route the Atomic bombs were dropped and the Japanese surrendered so Sgt Pemberton found himself supporting the Gurkas at Seramban just south of Kuala Lumpa. Bob managed to ‘liberate’ a Junior officers sword as a trophy that just happened to be the right size to fit into his kit bag. On the return journey dire warnings were given to the soldiery regarding the importing of guns, explosives and ammunition followed by the furtive sounds of splashing in the dark of night just off the English coastline. Young Bob debated the issue and decided that a sword did not fit into the previous categories of contraband and subsequently was truly relieved when on disembarkation in dear old Blightey he was waved through with no formalities whatsoever. However when he showed his proud possession to his father he was informed that it would make a useful donation to the new Lodge that his Dad was to be founder of and that which Bob was to join. So the sword was liberated yet again! It was used in March1995 to cut the cake at The Priory Lodges’ 50th anniversary celebrations and is one of their most prized items.

Not all of the swords were used in battle, one of my favourite swords bearing a wonderful name is used by Fitzroy Lodge no.569. This is the ‘proprietors Sword’ being owned and used by an ex Lord Mayor of London and given to the Lodge in his 90th year. A superb example of a civic ceremonial sword bearing the city’s coat of arms on the guard. Inscribed “ The Aldermanic sword of the Right Worshipful Bro. Sir Frank E Newson-Smith BT. DCL. MA. Initiated 1910 WM. 1930 & 1944 presented to the Lodge in 1968 prior to his death in 1971. For many years he was director of ceremonies in Fitzroy Lodge and in consequence he became known as ‘the proprietor’ a most fitting description for a dedicated freemason ”. I agree what a wonderful nickname for an obviously well loved mason.

My last sword, there were so many to choose from but space is short, is on record as actually drawing blood! Typically it is another seafaring sword, or rather cutlass, belonging to Navy Lodge no.2612 . This cutlass is notorious for having escaped from it’s scabbard in the Locker room in Gt. Queen St. In the 1970’s and pining the Tyler’s foot to the deck! The Tyler Wbro. Chief Yeoman of signals G Burchfield had served in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and had emerged totaly unscathed only to wounded in peace time, on Land, out of uniform and by a British weapon! Unfortunately it has escaped again perhaps being borrowed by another Tyler for a Lodge who has forgotten from whence it came. If your Lodge is using it please would you return it in time for the Naval Lodge centenary Friday 14th June 1996 where no questions will be asked but I am sure a place will be reserved at the meeting and festive board for a member of the returning Lodge. (Note. This is cmdr highams lodge and request.)
Lets hope like my first story this one ends happily, however it does serve to illustrate the need to photograph all our furniture and chattels not only for our records but also to identify our property should it surface sometime in the future after being placed ‘somewhere safe’, there are a number of Lodges who would like to return borrowed artefacts but have no records or recolections of who loaned them the items. This hapens particularly where tylers, secretarys etc belong to more than one Lodge. If your Lodge has an item of interest please send us a photograph together with the story and we will publish a selection in the future.

too short