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Above
Masonic furniture made
by French prisoners and
purchased from them by
Royal Sussex Lodge No. 353
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The French army, just like the British,
had a long tradition of having travelling
Lodges attached to their military. The first
Lodge in the French army was La Parfait,
constituted in 1759. So it is not surprising
that Lodges sprang up in most of the 50
cantonments in the UK.
The French rule was that seven Master
Masons could form a Lodge in a town where
there was no Lodge, and they became “loge
en instance”. In at least four cases, the French
applied to Lord Moira, Grand Master of the
Ancients Grand Lodge, to hold meetings.
They were held under the provision of
the Antients and in association with the
Grand Orient of France. The Lodge permit
for Des Vrais Amis de l’Odre Ashby-de-la-
Zouch is still extant. The brethren of Royal
Sussex Lodge No. 353 bought the lodge
furniture from the French prisoners. Still on
view in the Burton Masonic hall are the
floor cloths and furniture bought from the
French Lodges before their repatriation.
The French Lodges had names which
reflected their circumstances, among them
De l’Esperiance (hope), De l’infortunes (the
unfortunate ones) and De la Paix Desiree
(hope for peace).
Lodges were not only accessible in the
parole towns. In Portsmouth, for example,
upon the prison ship the Guildford, a
Monsieur A. Lardier wrote in his book
Historie des Pontons of a Lodge held in the
hull of the ship in such a confined space
that, although he was “less than the
ordinary stature of ordinary men we
were obliged to bend almost double,
so limited was the space.”
He added: “The Master of the Lodge,
who was as Sovereign Prince Rose Croix,
presided from a rickety three-legged bench
which he struggled throughout the ceremony
to keep stable. The remainder of the brethren
were obliged to sit upon the floor ‘in the
manner of Turks or Tailors’.” The floor work
must have been particularly impressive, for
this was not an occasional Lodge, but one of
a regular programme of meetings held by our
zealous French brothers.
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The Freemasons of Poole raised funds to
assist British prisoners of war in France and
even entertained a French prisoner brother.
One Englishman captured by the French, on
discovering that he was a fellow Mason, had
him billeted with brothers in Verdun. During
his captivity, which lasted from 1803 to 1814,
Napoleon personally provided Christmas
dinner for the English Freemasons.
Then there is the story of the ‘amity’
biscuit. A Captain Jacques le Bon captured
the brig Oak in 1813, and upon discovering
that the captain was a fellow Mason,
released him. Not only that, he also
presented him with a small dog which
had been owned by an English Mason
who had been recently captured.
The dog had a biscuit suspended around
its neck. Captain le Bon stated that he would
not even keep a brother’s dog in captivity,
nor would he see it want for food. The biscuit,
mounted and framed, is the prize possession
of Lodge of Amity No. 137 at Poole.
There are numerous memories of the
French brethren still visible in England,
ranging from Lodge furniture, Masonic
artefacts in museums, through to grave
stones in English churchyards, memorials
to French brothers who had given their
Parole – their Word.
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Copyright 2002-2007
MQ Magazine
Web site created by Mark Griffin
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