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The Beaux Arts Lodge jewel (front and back) designed by Spackman and signed by him.
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He was initiated into Panmure Lodge No. 720 on 21
January 1918 when 30 years old. The Lodge was to become
a Hall Stone Jewel Lodge, although Spackman resigned in
February 1923.
But in 1937 he thought there was a need for a new Surrey
Lodge to be formed to cater for professions such as engineers,
architects, surveyors etc. This led to the founding of Beaux
Arts Lodge No. 5707, consecrated at Sutton Masonic Hall
on 28 January 1938. Spackman and Sadler, his father-in-law,
were both founder members, Spackman being the first
secretary, and Sadler the first Master.
With the coming of war, Surrey County Council requisitioned
the Hall for use as a rest centre, but Spackman came
to the rescue and offered the Lodge the use of his studio for
its meetings.
As a result, the Lodge met there regularly from 1939 to
1948. Spackman became Master in January 1940, and had the
unique distinction of being installed in a ceremony conducted
in his own home.
He remained secretary right up to his death, and even
during his year in the chair, he continued to deal with Lodge
affairs, although another Brother was secretary by name.
He was a man of many talents – architect, painter, sculptor,
teacher, writer, Freemason. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio
on 15 August 1887, the only son of a Welsh Methodist
minister the Rev. John and Adele Saunders Spackman.
Educated in schools on both sides of the Atlantic, in 1922
he was commissioned to paint the portrait of a prominent
Croydon Freemason, Richard Joseph Sadler.
Mr Sadler had a daughter, Ada Victoria, and romance
blossomed, and later that year they were married. The
Croydon Times (19 August 1958), in an interview with
Spackman, reported:
A high-ranking Surrey Freemason, he recalled that it was
Freemasonry that led to his marriage with Miss Queenie Sadler,
the well-known Croydon violinist in 1922, and to his coming to
live in Croydon.
He first met her when he was asked to paint the portrait of her
father, who was then a prominent Freemason.
“And it was a real Masonic wedding, in St Matthew’s,
George Street” Mr Spackman remembered.
They had one daughter, who became a writer, and a son who
became an RAF pilot, and who then flew with British
Overseas Airways Corporation. Then he became a designer
and test pilot with Miles Beagle Aircraft. Tragically he was
killed during a flight at the age of 35.
At their home in East Croydon, Cyril Spackman had a
splendid studio built to his own design in which he could
exhibit his own works and hold meetings.
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