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London venue available
For the past four years, following approval
by the Grand Tyler, the City University
Club has been catering for Masonic meetings
and dinners. We now have vacancies for
more meetings.
We are based in the heart of the City of
London in EC3. Our chefs are Savoy trained
and we are renowned for our excellent
cuisine. We have all Lodge and Chapter
furniture and storage facilities. Meetings
including room hire and a three course
dinner with wine are from £35 per person.
Robina Graham
Secretary,
City University Club,
50 Cornhill, London EC3V 3PD,
Tel 0207 626 8571
Thanks to Brothers worldwide
My father, W Bro. Brian (Charlie) Mynard
and my Mother Florence, recently visited
relatives in Australia for a special holiday,
during which my father suffered a minor
stroke and was taken into Coffs Harbour
Hospital. Whist in the critical care ward,
he suffered a major stroke, which almost
proved fatal.
I am writing to express my grateful
thanks to the Brethren of the Province of
Sydney and their wives, who gave their time
to visit him during his five weeks in hospital.
My special thanks go to Baden Graham
of Coffs Harbour Daylight Lodge No. 1016,
who organised the visits and reported back
to me via email on my father’s progress.
These visitors gave respite care to my
mother during this emotional and stressful
period and also stimulated my father at a
time when he could just have given up.
I must also thank Jim Parkin, Assistant
Provincial Grand Master of Buckinghamshire,
Mike Watts, Almoner of Cowper &
Newton Lodge No. 2244 and David
Sawyer, Provincial Grand Almoner of
Buckinghamshire, who made the Australian
link, John Fisher Provincial Grand Master
of Buckinghamshire Mark and all who
telephoned Australia direct or contacted
me regularly for reports on his progress.
Without their help we may never have
got him home. It is truly wonderful and
comforting to think that our Fraternity’s
arm’s extends to the other side of the World.
Doug Mynard
Newport Pagnell,
Buckinghamshire
Brother Blücher
It is a pity in the article A Brother In Arms
(MQ, Issue No. 9) that, although there is a
print of the painting concerning the meeting
of Wellington and Blücher, and reference
to the fact that Ney was a Mason, there is
no mention that Blücher was a Mason.
He was, at one time, the Master of Loge
zu den drey Balkan in Münster, Germany.
There is a famous painting in the Lodge
rooms which spent World War Two with
the Masonic symbols painted over and hung
prominently on the wall of a Nazi officer.
Wellington is reported to have referred
to Waterloo as a “Damn close-run thing”.
I would suggest it would have been a lot
closer had not Blücher and his army arrived
when they did.
Ian Harris
Morecambe, Lancashire
William Joyce and Masonry
I was interested to read in your last issue
the review of Mary Kenny’s biography
of William Joyce, ‘Lord Haw Haw’. This
is not the first time that there has been a
report on Joyce in a Masonic periodical.
The following item appeared in The
Freemason on 11 July 1936, under the
heading ‘Fascism and Freemasonry’:
The question of the attitude of Fascism to
Freemasonry was raised at a meeting in connection
with the British Union of Fascists at the Yeovil
Assembly-rooms on 19 June. The speaker was
Mr. William Joyce (Director of Propaganda).
Replying to a question, Mr Joyce said that
toward English Freemasonry they had no attitude
whatever. If they received any proof that the
organisation in Britain was taking part in politics
they would at once protest. But they must have
proof before they acted.
The Masonic Order in England was under royal
patronage, and he could not very well conceive
that Royal patronage would be given to an
organisation which worked against the Country.
From personal experience he knew scores of
Masons who were ordinary English people and
who would be shocked and surprised if they were
told that their Order had any political significance.
He knew scores of Masons who had given good
service to their Country and would certainly not
be prepared to allow their Order to use them
for any political purpose. In France, Italy and
Germany, Freemasonry had played a disastrous
role. In those countries it meddled with politics
as a rule.
To those who said British Freemasonry might
be a danger to the state he replied: ‘Bring to me
evidence that it is working against the state’.
They were to be convinced by evidence and
not by hearsay.
Joyce’s assurances that the differences
between British and continental
Freemasonry were recognised by fascist
groups ring hollow in the light of the
sacking of Masonic temples in the Channel
Islands by German occupying forces a few
years later.
Professor Andrew Prescott
Centre for Research into Freemasonry,
University of Sheffield
Lifeboat book
Further to the letter from Brian Smith,
President RMBI and others, I have a copy
of a book entitled The Royal National Life-
Boat Institution and the Masonic Lifeboats,
written by I.F. Trinder of Holland-on-sea
Lodge No. 6639 and published in 1973 to
cover a century of association between the
RNLI and Masonry.
It appears to have been published
privately and sold entirely for the benefit of
the Royal Masonic Hospital and the RNLI.
Eric L. Parrish
Pevensey, East Sussex
Gunners everywhere
The article about Richard Eve (MQ, Issue
No. 9) refers to his letter concerning a visit
he made to the ‘Ublique’ Lodge, connected
to the Royal Artillery.
As every gunner knows, the Latin motto
of the regiment, from which the name of the
Lodge was borrowed, starts with the word
‘Ubique’ which means ‘everywhere’. As a
young National Serviceman, I shall never
forget the drill sergeant who drummed that
motto into us.
Cyril Zipson
Ilford, Essex
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