The Square - June 2012

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Banner Lodges living conditions improved and rationing ceased, that Bro Major R L Lloyd took the opportunity to present a banner to the Lodge as ‘…a token of the happiness and pleasure he had enjoyed during his years of membership of the Lodge’. The cost of storage of these banners and their maintenance had become expensive in the post war era, with high inflation and taxation and rising costs. The members of the Lodge decided to review the situation and a Committee was formed ‘…to survey the banners presented by Past Masters under Bylaw VII and to make recommendations regarding their repair and display…’ The Committee duly reported and advised ‘…that the practice of displaying the banners at meetings should continue as in the past. The banners being displayed should be those of eminent masons and those still living. Banners in an imperfect condition, but not beyond repair should be renovated and all kept between meetings in a cupboard…’. In the early 1980s the banners were framed to help preserve them. At that time the Old Union Lodge No. 46 was meeting at the Café Royal and the banners were displayed in the Masonic Suite. When the Café Royal Masonic Suite closed the problem of the banners became pressing and it was decided to return the banners to the donors or the donor’s families. Addiscombe Lodge No. 1556 was consecrated in 1875. ‘It had been the custom from that date until the present time for each Master to present a banner of his coat of arms i

The first Master presented the Lodge with a banner at the Consecration on 13 November 1875. This custom persisted for fifty years until the just after the Golden Jubilee when the custom ended and banners returned to the families of the donors. The banners, which were made of embroidered silk, proved very difficult to preserve and following the Golden Jubilee meeting it was decided on 11 October 1930 ‘that the proposal of the Officers of the Lodge for the year 1930-1931 to provide a lodge Banner be accepted and that the name of each successive Master be suitably inscribed thereon. Further that the customary offering by an incoming Master of a banner of his Arms be discontinued although the present banners be used in conjunction with the New Lodge Banner’. ii

The Great Depression was having an effect on the members’ incomes. The following year it was decided to return the banners to the relatives of the donors and this was done apart from seven banners which were retained until 1976, when their condition was so poor that they were disposed of.

This is the first of the non approved coat of arms (a pun on the name Lockwood)

Major Naylor uses the RAMC coat of arms and motto

Use of RAF arms

View of the Lodge room

12 The Square June 2012

Royal Edward Lodge No. 1489 was originally named after the Grand Master, the Marquess of Ripon, and was named the Marquis of Ripon Lodge No. 1489 until 1901, when the members petitioned Grand Lodge to alter the Lodge name to the Prince Edward Lodge, after the Grand Master at the date of Consecration, His Royal Highness Edward, Prince of Wales. I do not know what reason was given to Grand Lodge for the change of name, but the Lodge history informs us that the Founders took exception to the fact that the Marquess had resigned his position in Grand Lodge and had converted to Roman Catholicism. The Lodge was consecrated by the Grand Secretary at the Metropolitan Societies Asylum, Balls Pond Road, Dalston; they subsequently retired for the after proceedings to the Broad Street Station Refreshment Rooms. The Consecration was attended by some forty-two Brethren including nine Founders. The first Master was William Stephens, a Past Master of the Clapton Lodge No. 1365. Williams Stephens was a member of the Stephens Ink family and was a man of some substance, as were all the Founders. At that Consecration it was resolved ‘that each Master on being Installed, present his banner and arms to the Lodge’. W Stephens, the first Master, and each subsequent Master, presented a banner at least until 1894, when the practice fell into abeyance. A banner of a Bro Pugh was returned to the Lodge in 1970 and that banner is still in the possession of the Lodge, although it is never exhibited at their meetings. I understand that the banners provided were of genuine coats of arms and approved by the College of Heralds. Lodge of Fortitude and Old Cumberland No. 12 is not a Banner Lodge in the sense that I have stated but it is interesting to note that apart from a set of silk banners provided for the Master, Wardens, Treasurer, Secretary, Junior and Senior Deacons and the Inner Guard, the Master presented a personal banner to the Lodge in 1892. Tyrian Lodge No. 253, meeting at Littleover in Derbyshire, has had some seventeen banners, including ones presented by members of the Tyrian Lodge, such as the Duke of Devonshire, Earl Ferrers, Earle Howe, various members of the Gell and Oakover families (who were substantial landowners in Derbyshire), Lord Haigh and other luminaries including one Provincial Grand Master and three Past Deputy Provincial Grand Masters. The practice seemed to be that those members of the Lodge who were armigerous presented a banner to the Lodge depicting their coats of arms. The banners were displayed at the Masonic hall in Gower Street, Derby but when this was sold in the early 1970s the new premises were not suitable for their exhibition and they were stored in the attic. The banners, which were made of silk, were framed and behind glass, but following a fire at the new Masonic hall in 1982 the banners were affected by the smoke. The cost of repairing the thirteen remaining banners was considered prohibitive and the Lodge Committee decided to destroy them. They were rescued by Graham Rudd, Assistant Provincial Grand Master, in whose care they are at present. The banners were exhibited in 2002 in the Freemasonry in the Community Exhibition explaining the history and background of the Tyrian Lodge and Freemasonry in Derbyshire. The Camden Place Lodge No. 3042 has the personal banners of two of its members. The first banner was that of Bro J C H Twallin which was

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View of the Lodge room

Dr R Boomla on the 50th anniversary of his Initiation beneath his banner presented 40 years previously presented by his son Bro J Twallin after the death of his father in 1978. The Personal Standard of the then Provincial Grand

Master was delivered into the safe keeping of the Lodge on Thursday, 1 November 1979. There was a short ceremony during which the standard was delivered into the safe keeping of the Lodge. It was received by the Master, who was his successor in office as Provincial Grand Master, Reverend Canon Peter Churton Collins. The second banner was that of Reverend Canon Peter Churton Collins himself, who also delivered his Personal Standard into safe keeping in 1987 when he retired from office. Pattison Lodge No. 913 is the Lodge with the largest collection of Masters’ banners in the country and the banners are still being presented to the Lodge. The first one was presented by the founding Secretary, Bro Everett Denton and dated 1861-1862. Following that presentation it became the tradition that the Master present a banner to the Lodge to commemorate his year of office. The Lodge at present has over sixty banners that are displayed at every meeting. The banners displayed are usually those of all living members and a selection of past members. The banners presented were from Past Masters, some of whom were not necessarily armigerousiii. A person can get a coat of arms either by being descended from a person with a right to bear a coat of arms or by having a new grant of arms to himself (or herself). The granting of a coat of arms is a lengthy and costly process and it appears from the banners that that procedure was not always followed. The pattern of the banners from the earliest one donated by the founding Secretary was simply the Lodge name and number, under which is a shield with its supporters with the motto Post Tenebris Lux, with his name Bro E Denton, Secretary from 1862, WM of Lodge 1863-1854, Prov J Deacon Kent 1883. The subsequent Masters left off the

Banner Lodges

The Master was a photographer

A pun on the Master’s name

Lodge name and just had their family coat of arms, with their name and the year in which they were Master. One of the more interesting Masters was Bro Col Edwin Hughes MP, a local solicitor who was a Lt Colonel in the 1st Volunteer Brigade of the Royal Artillery, a Member of Parliament from 1885-1902, who was knighted in 1902. From 1902 the name of the Lodge and its number, Pattison Lodge No. 913, was reintroduced into the general pattern and with one or two exceptions has continued to this day. It is interesting to speculate on the Master’s background from his coat of arms was the brother with a camera in his coat of arms a photographer? There are many service badges included: one or two are of a particular corps such as the RAMC or the SAS (or commandos later on); from the 1930s the RAF insignia becomes apparent. The Pattison Lodge celebrated its 150th

Anniversary on 21 May 2012 and it is encouraging that the practice of Masters presenting their personal banner to the Lodge still continues to this day. In May 2011 Bro Harry Marsh presented his banner to the Lodge. The presentation appears as an agenda item: the brother concerned rises and formally presents his banner then gives an explanation of the banner to the assembled Brethren and the Master accepts the banner on behalf of the Lodge. At the 150th Anniversary meeting, the Lodge had on display all the banners of the living Past Masters, as well as the banners of its earliest Masters including the Golden Jubilee Master and his two Wardens together with the Centenary Master and the two Wardens. The Temple was a real splash of colour. The Pattison Lodge is very proud of its heritage and is always pleased to welcome visitors who wish to attend the Lodge.

It is very heartening that in the twenty-first century the traditions laid down 150 years ago are still being observed and this Lodge continues to perpetuate its Past Masters when all the other banner Lodges appear to have given up the struggle to keep the tradition going.

i Jubilee Festival booklet by W Bro Sydney Edridge,

PPGW (October 1925).

ii History of the Addiscombe Lodge No. 1566, 1875-1975.

iii A person who has a coat of arms is sometime called an armiger.

They are armigerous.

View of the Lodge room

June 2012 The Square 13