Saturday 25th MAY 2019 – 125th Celebration Meeting

On Saturday 25th May the Lodge celebrated 125 years of continuous working with the presence of 74 Brethren including the R W Provincial Grand Master, Rodney Lister Bass. Included in the 74 were 16 Lodge Officers and Members, 10 Provincial Officers and 48 personal guests.

The Worshipful Master, W Bro Chris Hicks PAGDC, welcomed all present at the start of the meeting and the R W ProvGM when he entered supported by a retinue of Provincial Officers.

During the meeting the brethren were treated to a wonderful explanation of the Battle of Trafalgar, 21st October 1805, by W Bro Mark Smith, ProvGOrator. W Bro Smith is well known for his excellent presentations on the Victoria Cross, WW1 and other military campaigns and events. This was only the second time that he had given this presentation, and he gave it with his normal style, ensuring that all present could visualise the events clearly in their mind’s eye.

The meeting also commemorated W Bro John Lee completing 50 years in Freemasonry, and W Bro Neil Beverly PSGD, APGM, presented him with his certificate.

The ProvGM also welcomed the Lodge’s newest member Bro Mark Tyler, who had been Initiated on 27th April 2019.

W Bro Hugh Hessing, Charity Steward was then presented with a Grand Patron Certificate for Festival 2022, for the MCF, by the R W ProvGM, and promised that the Lodge would reach Double Grand Parton by the end of the Festival (which was achieved with a fantastic £7,310)

At the Festive Board W Bro Hicks responded with the following

RW PGM, Distinguished brethren, brethren all.

Sir, thank you for being here today accompanied by your team and thank you all for attending from all parts of the South and East of England.

Erol, thank you for those kind words.

It is an honour to be here on this auspicious occasion, particularly as I missed the Centenary meeting, as I was the first candidate after that event. The last 25 years have rocketed past and I am pleased to have attended all the meetings since then with the exception of the Installation meeting in 1995, 4 weeks before I was Initiated , and I hope that you will all appreciate the work Dick Mathews has done in putting those years and events into the booklet which you each have. Dick also wrote the Centenary booklet, of which we have a few left, and Sir, I would like to present one to you today so you have the complete first 125 years of the Lodge.

Dick, along with John Lee, Ron Carr, Kelvin Stone and David Tidman who are all here today, were at the Centenary meeting. Brian Jones was also there but he is currently sailing around the UK!

You may have noticed the silver items that are dotted around the tables. These are a few of the items presented to Thomas Ralling during his Masonic career. We were given these by members of the Ralling family a few years ago, and it was suggested by the family that in the future there would be bequests so that the items stay in the UK and are not sold. Thomas Ralling’s great niece, who gave us these, is still going strong so we will be pleased to wait. A couple of the pieces are mentioned in the tome, The Master’s Chair produced a number of years ago by the Province. 

To see this dining room and the Lodge room so full is wonderful. The last time I saw numbers like this was in 2001 when we had the party of masons from Utah.

125 years is a long time and I feel proud that the Lodge is still going strong. The founders would be very pleased to see that the Lodge is still a summer Lodge, still meets on Saturdays and is still, just, in the countryside! I don’t think they would appreciate the sprawl of London into Epping Forest or the difficulties of parking, but they would appreciate the nearness of the electric railway.

Our heritage started with Orpheus Lodge of whom we have 3 members today including the WM Alex, plus an honorary member, me. We were visited by our first daughter Lodge Richard Clowes at the Installation meeting, and we have members of our newest daughter Lodge, West Essex Meridian and our Granddaughter Lodge, Warren Wood with us, thank you brethren for being here on this occasion.

It is also good to see our newest member, Mark Tyler, here today. Mark, now you can see why we wanted to get you Initiated before this meeting…… to act as a Steward!

I am looking forward to the rest of the year, when we will Pass and Raise Mark.