Well done, London, for your RMBI support
says the Met Grand Charity Steward

At our last annual general meeting, the Metropolitan Grand Master, RWBro Lord Millett, informed us that the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution had asked if London Freemasons may consider making a special effort of support for the charity.

There are a growing number of petitioners, both Freemasons and their dependants, of which there are currently nearly 250 London petitioners resident in masonic homes, for whom the cost in real terms alone to the RMBI is around £900,000 per annum.

This appeal has the joint support of all the Masonic Charity Presidents.

London, in true masonic spirit, picked up the challenge and, by a concerted effort from lodges and chapters, a sum of just over £500,000 has been raised to date and the total is still rising! A very commendable achievement from everyone, and it is hoped that by the next AGM this figure will have risen to at least £750,000.

Due to the general longevity of life nowadays, the demands on the RMBI for that especial security, comfort and support required to maintain the dignity of many in their later years of life will continue to grow.

The need for London, therefore, to maintain its continued support of the RMBI is paramount, and I am sure that on your behalf the RMBI can rely on London’s continued commitment.

The RMBI has asked that I convey their appreciation to you all, and Lord Millett expresses his sincere thanks for your most generous response thus far.

WBro Bob Corp-Reader OBE, PJGD
Met Grand Charity Steward.

Grant to help bombing victims

The Grand Charity swung into action after the four bomb explosions in London on 7th July.

The following week, an emergency grant of £50,000 was approved to assist the victims, after the Mayor of London had established the London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund, in association with the British Red Cross to raise money for the victims and their families.

The Grand Charity’s donation was placed in the care of trustees appointed by the Greater London Authority. It was aimed at relieving dis-ability or physical and mental sickness caused by the attacks and to help with financial needs.

Nearly half of the £2.68m grants by the Grand Charity last year is helping to fund medical research projects.

The largest of these is a £1m grant to the Institute of Cancer Research, to help scientists combat testicular and prostate cancers.

The money is being paid in ten annual instal-ments of £100,000 to fund The Grand Charity of Freemasons’ Chair of Molecular Biology. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to affect men in the UK. Each year 27,000 cases are diagnosed, and the disease kills 10,000 a year.

In June 2004, scientists at the ICR announced a major advance in understanding the genetic basis of prostate cancer. The ground-breaking discov-ery of the overactive E2F3 gene in prostate tumours will allow doctors for the first time to predict how aggressive the cancer will be.

The Grand Charity made an emergency grant of £10,000 to Save the Children to support the charity’s work in Niger.

A massive humanitarian crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa resulted from a poor harvest caused by drought conditions and the worst locust infestation in 20 years. In Niger, the world’s second poorest country, the United Nations estimated around 2.5 million people had been hit, including 800,000 children.

Save the Children launched an emergency response to provide food, water and healthcare for about 43,000 children under five years old in the Maradi and Zinder regions of Niger.

The Grand Charity’s £10,000 donation was intended to provide food for 250 severely malnourished children for 30 days, the average time spent in the feeding programme, and water-purification tablets for 10,000 children.

Certa Cito Lodge
The First Twenty-Five Years by Hywel Thomas

Freemasonry is believed to have originated in England in the late 16 th or early 17 th centuries, descending directly, or indirectly from the craft of the medieval stonemason. The part played by the military in the development of Freemasonry, both home and abroad, has been considerable since a Master Gunner to King Charles 1 was admitted to a lodge in Edinburgh in 1634. In 1641, the same lodge admitted a General and a Quartermaster and five years later, at Warrington , a Royalist Captain and a Parliamentarian were also made Masons.

In his book, published to commemorate the 25 th Anniversary of Certa Cito, the Lodge formed in 1980 for members of the family of Royal Signals, Hywel Thomas traces the spread of Freemasonry around the world by soldiers and sailors of the Crown using “travelling warrants” as their authority to establish several hundred new lodges on behalf of the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland and Ireland. The book describes how Freemasonry, or the Craft as it is known, was developed, how it established its present infrastructure, coped with the privations of warfare and hostile public opinion and has nurtured and sustained its important relationship with the Armed Forces.

Hywel Thomas, a Founder of the Lodge, summarizes the history of Certa Cito over the past twenty-five years. Details are provided of the masonic and military service of the 200 members of the Lodge over this period, all of whom who served in the Corps, including several quite famous personalities: Major Victor King, who served 55 years with the Colours, enlisted as a boy Sapper, joined the Corps in 1920 and became the first Foreman of Signals; Brigadier Claude Fairweather, who served with the Chindits in Burma and Commanded 2 Divisional Signal Regt, the First Master of the Lodge who remained an active member well into his nineties; Bill Hart, who was the senior RSM in the Corps immediately after WW2; Colonel Geoffrey Dicker, Colonel Commandant; and many others.

The book, which contains many references to other publications that chronicle the role of the military within the Craft, aims to stimulate interest in Freemasonry in general and in Certa Cito in particular, from current and future members of the serving and retired Corps.

Proceeds from the sale of the book, which will be launched at the 25 th Anniversary Meeting of Certa Cito, detailed on the right, will be donated to the Royal Signals Benevolent Fund.

Strong Man Lodge No.45 (constituted in 1733) owns a set of three valuable George II masonic chairs which have been in need of restoration after languishing in the Grand Lodge Museum for over 100 years, and since 1927 on the mezzanine floor of the present Library and Museum.

They were inspected by furniture guru John Bly, of Antiques Roadshow fame, who pronounced them among the finest he had ever seen.

After considerable discussion, the Lodge set aside £3500 for the restoration work. This protracted campaign was a cause célèbre for Lodge Historian WBro Bernard Williamson. Then WBro Michael Curtis undertook to find a suitable restorer and supervised the work.

The chairs have now been beautifully restored by Oliver Manning Press of Canterbury, and they are back in the Museum for all to see, although they remain the Lodge's property.

They were used at the Lodge's Installation meeting last year. WBro Peter Tydeman, Zetland Group Chairman, and WBro Michael Banfield, VGO, were present with many other brethren to admire them in actual use for the first time since the 1800s. The Lodge now intends to use them at every Installation meeting.

How many journalists and PR practitioners are there among the thousands of London Masons? Your professional expertise will be useful as we try to raise Freemasonry's profile in and around London.

If you have experience as a journalist working in the local and regional press, or as a PR specialist dealing with journalists, WBro Nick Carter would love to hear from you. He is a former newspaper and magazine editor, now running a PR and publishing consultancy and helping Metropolitan Grand Lodge's PR team.

Please email us or call Nick on 01865 744995.

Anyone for tennis?

Calling all umpires, tournament organisers, players and masons called McEnroe – a group of brethren are proposing to found a new Lodge with the sport of tennis as its centre of interest.

If you are involved in the industry and are interested in participating, please contact WBro Peter Lane 01737 353541.