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THE CIRCUIT |
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Masonry and the Armed Forces There is evidence to suggest that the first senior military figures to become a mason were General Sir Alexander Hamilton and the Quarter Master General - General Sir Robert Moray. They were received into the Edinburgh lodge No 1 Scottish Constitution in 1641 and although being Scottish soldiers this took place on English soil at Newcastle upon Tyne. This was some 5 years before Elias Ashmole was initiated in Warrington. Most Military Lodges were ones holding 'travelling' or 'ambulatory' warrants that permitted meetings to be held (under proper conditions) wherever the Regiment or Unit happended to be stationed, whether temporary or not. The 1st of foot (Royal Scots) petitioned the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1732 and became the first regiment to gain warrant No 11 which was dated the 7th of November of that year. This opened the floodgates and over the next 10 years Irish Warrants were granted to the following regiments of foot: 17th (Leicestershire), 18th (Royal Irish), 19th (Green Howards), 20th Lancashire Fusiliers, 27th (Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers), 28th(Gloucestershire), 30th (East Lancashire), 32nd (Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry), 33rd (West Riding (Duke of Wellington’s), 38th (South Staffords), and the 39th (Dorset). In 1743 the Grand Lodge of Scotland issued warrants to the 12th (Suffolk), 55th (2nd Border) and, interestingly, a Cavalry Regiment - 2nd (Scots Greys). The first English (Antients) Warrant was issued in 1755 to the 57th of Foot (Middlesex Regiment). Thereafter all 3 Grand Lodges issued hundreds of Warrants to the Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and Militia although it is interesting to note that the Artillery was almost exclusively Antient. In all some 581 Warrants, at the last count, have been issued to the Armed Forces, the majority to the Army but some 4 warrants were issue to ship’s companies and the Royal Marines have lodges but are all immovable in garrisons. It is worth mentioning that there have been about 10 Royal Air Force warrants and about the same number to Combined Service Lodges. The 4 shipboard lodges as they operated under the Modern’s due to a strange mandate to Thomas Dunkerly, a commissioned gunner. Dunkerly had the authority to grand warrants from the Premier Grand Lodge and was responsible for establishing lodges on board HMS Vanguard in 1760. In the same year, under this mandate, he installed the first Provincial Grand Master of Canada at Quebec. He also granted warrants to HMS Canceaux and HMS Guadaloupe in 1762. There is only one other ship know to have had a warrant which was HMS Ardent that gained a warrant in 1810 under the Scottish constitution and formed the Naval Kilwinning Lodge. During the 18th and 19th centuries Regiments came and went as their nation stood them down after war only to resurrect them when in need. Consequently, warrants also came and went, and in some cases there were more than one lodge in Regiments. Regiments that settled for a long period on garrison duty often surrendered their warrants as travelling lodges and set up an immovable lodge, mostly under the overseas province in which they were garrisoned. If one wishes to explore the spread of Masonry overseas one only has to trace the movements of some British regiments. Minden Lodge was warranted in 1748 to the 20th regiment of Foot and although it remained in England for 8 years, it then spent the next 100 years moving around Germany, America, West Indies, Holland, Ireland, France, Egypt, Malta, Naples, Sicily, Gibraltar, Spain, Portugal and India (25 years). The 46th Regiment of Foot was sent, with its Lodge (Social and Virtue No. 227), to Sydney, Australia, in 1813. Under its auspices, a new lodge was formed in 1816 and was warranted four years later by the GL of Ireland under the name Australian Social Lodge No. 260 (now known as Lodge of Antiquity). This became the first lodge to be warranted in Australia and when the GL of New South Wales was formed it became No. 1 on its register. The 20th Regiment of Foot (Sphinx Lodge No. 263) was posted to Yokohama, Japan, in 1864 and their meetings stimulated the local community to form their own lodge that was warranted in 1866. Life for regimental lodges was dictated by the fortunes of war not least of which was lodge members failing to return from the battles in which engaged. The lodge chest or warrant could also become a casualty of war. The lodge box of the 25th of Foot (KOSB) was lost in transit to Germany in the Austrian Succession War and a new one was consecrated at Berwick in 1763. The Lodge of Social and Military Virtues (46th of Foot (DCLI)) had its lodge box captured by the enemy in the American War of Independence and luckily, it was returned by its commander - 'Brother' General George Washington. The 22nd of Foot (Cheshire’s) lost its warrant in a skirmish with an Indian tribe in 1764. War was clealry no impediment to brotherly love. During the American War of Independence, General Parsons authorised the return of a lodge chest belonging to the 17th British Foot Regiment and that of the Dragoon Guards also had theirs sent back under a flag of truce with a guard of honour. At Gibraltar in the same year, the Spaniards captured the warrant of the 59th Foot (East Lancs). In the Flanders campaign in 1794 to 95 the 6th Dragoon Guards and 38th Foot (South Staffords) lost theirs to the French. Two Scottish Lodges lost their charters in action in the Seven Years War: the Scots Greys Killwinning and Masons Lodge and the 23rd of Foot (Royal Welch Fusiliers). In 1812 the 2nd Battalion of the 59th of Foot (East Lancs) were in 2 troopships that were wrecked in a storm after which both the Battalion and its lodge chest ceased to exist. As the empire expanded so did the requirement to secure the appropriated lands through establishing garrisons. This encouraged many travelling lodges to settle and there are many temples today that can trace their history back to regiments. The artillery established lodges in Canada, India and Gibraltar. There is evidence that 46th of Foot (DCLI), that lost its box in the American War of Independence, after 95 years of travelling settled in Canada and later became No 1 of the Grand Lodge of Quebec. It had also been instrumental some years earlier in the establishment in Sydney of another Irish Lodge that survives today as Australian Social Lodge No 1 of New South Wales. Many Colonial Regiments that had British Officers and NCOs similarly established lodges under the Irish and Scottish Constitutions. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 military lodges began to die out and while most have long since disappeared, their history survives as in the West Indies with the Bermuda Garrison Lodge No 580 of Ireland. Examples exist in India, Pakistan, Zambia, Kenya and South Africa. The first truly US military 'moveable' lodge was warranted in 1776 in the Connecticut Line of the Continental Army. The 'American Union Lodge' was given authority to meet anywhere within continental America, provided no Grand Master had been appointed to that area. Unfortunately, the unit immediately moved to New York where the GM would not confirm the warrant. In April of that year he gave them a new warrant as Military Union Lodge No. 1, without recallign the original warrant. Thus the lodge held two warrants from, and yielding to, two Grand bodies in different jurisidictions; a rather unique situation though they only used the one name. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the story of New York when 3 Antient Lodges were joined by several travelling lodges – 3 Antient, one Irish, one Scottish and another working under dispensation. The Antient Grand Lodge of England therefore warranted a Provincial Grand Lodge of New York No 219 in 1781 and in 1784 it became the Grand Lodge of America about 9 months after independence. No Military Lodges as such are listed on the register of the Grand Lodge of England today. In 1947 the Social Friendship lodge No. 497 of the 89th Royal Irish Fusiliers Regiment surrendered their travelling warrant replacing it with a new warrant authorising it ot meet as a staionary lodge. In 1949 similar action was taken by the Lodge of Unity, Peace and Concord No. 316 of the Royal Scots Regiment. Both of these lodges still meet in London. As far as military masonry is today there are about 40 lodges in Britain that could still be regarded as military lodges – 30 English, 2 Irish and 9 or so Scottish. Military means that they retain an ethos and culture of the Armed Forces of the Crown, which in practical terms means that around 60% of the membership, should be servicemen or veterans. The two Irish military lodges today are also the last remaining travelling lodges:- Lodge Glittering Star No. 322 warranted in the 29th of Foot (Worcestershire Regiment) on 3rd May 1759 travels across the land during its Masonic year. St Patrick's Lodge No. 295 is the last truly regimental lodge of the Royal Dragoons (formerly the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards) currently based in Münster, Germany. During a recent operational tour in IRAQ they held 3 meetings in Basra. The GL of Scotland lists 4 lodges with military titles but these are no longer truly military lodges. The GL of France lists 20 military lodges (13 in France and 7 outside - in Spain and the Netherlands). Israel lists one and New Zealand three, two of which restrict membership to military personnel only and the third to military personnel and members of the Merchant Marine (Service Lodge No. 237, Lodge of Remembrance No. 318 and United Forces No. 245). Service Lodge closed in 1988 when its remaining members amalgamated into the United Lodge of Otago No. 448.
More .....................Origins of the Circuit of Service Lodges For more information on joining the Circuit - click here.
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