The Manawatu Freemason

  Joseph Banks. 1743 - 1820 Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent naturalist, was the first Freemason to set foot on Australian soil, he was at the time on a combined Royal Navy & Royal Society scientific expedition to the South Pacific Ocean on HMS Endeavour led by Captain James Cook. Joseph Banks was born on 24 February 1743, the son of William Banks, a wealthy Lincolnshire country squire and member of Parliament.  He was initiated into Freemasonry at Somerset House Lodge No. 4 prior to 1768. Various scholars have attempted to establish the date of his initiation into The Horne Lodge. A closer approximation of the date of Banks’ initiation can be made by reference to his contemporary Freemasons, such as Thomas Dunkerley (the natural son of George III), Lord Gormastone, Viscount Hampden, James Heseltine, and Admiral Peter Parker, for instance. Banks may have joined the lodge when he was at Oxford University, though one might have expected that he would have achieved some of his s...

Edward Anthony Jenner. 1749 - 1823 Bro Edward Jenner was born on May 17th 1749 he was raised on December 30th 1802 and died January 26th 1823. Bro Edward Anthony Jenner was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England.  Bro Jenner is credited for discovering the scientific principles of immunization and for engineering the vaccine for smallpox. Bro Jenner's dream was for future generations to live in a world without smallpox.  This dream finally became reality 56 years after his death, when the World Health Organization declared smallpox an eradicated disease. Jenner was raised a Master Mason in 1802 and was a member of Lodge of Faith and Friendship No.270 in Gloucestershire, England.  He was active in the fraternity, serving in 1812 as Master of his lodge.  This lodge was regularly visited by the Prince of Wales – the future George IV – who would play a significant role in Bro Jenner’s life.  In 1821, having known him to be a man of integrity from their time toge...

  Bro Lionel Brockman Richie Jr Bro Lionel Brockman Richie Jr was born on the 20th June 1949 in Tuskegee Alabama, the son of Lionel Brockman Richie, a U.S. Army systems analyst, and Alberta R. Foster, a teacher and school principal. His grandmother Adelaide Mary Brown was a pianist who played classical music. He signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records in 1968 for one record before moving to Motown Records originally as a supporting act for the Jackson 5, the Commodores became an established soul group in 1974.  In 1982 Bro Richie left the Commodores and started his solo career realising his first solo album “Lionel Richie” that contained three single, US number one hits. Over the years he has won four Grammy Awards including song of the year in 1985 for “we are the world” which he co-wrote with Michel Jackson, Album of the Year in 1984 for Can’t Slow Down, Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) in 1984, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for Truly in 1982, Richie was ...

Douglas MacArthur.  26 January 1880 - 5 April 1964 Bro Douglas MacArthur, born on the 26th January 1880 Bro MacArthur was a scholar and military leader dubbed “The American Shogun”.  While stationed in the Philippines, MacArthur was made a Mason “at sight” by the Grand Master of the Philippines, he was raised on the 14th January 1936 and had received the 32nd degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite on the 28th March of that same year.  Being made a "Mason at sight" is a rare Masonic procedure where a Grand Master uses their authority to initiate, pass, and raise a candidate to the degree of Master Mason in a single session, bypassing the usual waiting periods and proficiency requirements. He was was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army.  He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935; as Supreme Command...

  Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer and an artist.  Since its inception in 1901, Churchill is the only British Prime Minister to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill was initiated into Studholme Lodge No. 1591 (now United Studholme Alliance Lodge) on 24 May 1901.  Churchill completed his Second Degree nearly two months later on 19 July 1901 and was then made a Master Mason on 25 March 1902. Churchill's apron now resides in the Museum of Freemasonry, United Grand Lodge of England. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874–1965) was a monumental British statesman who served as the ...

  Bro Sir Malcolm Campbell. 1885 - 1948 Bro Sir Malcolm Campbell was born in Chislehurst, London on the 11th March 1885, and is a famed British motor racing driver and motoring journalist.  He is famous for being the first to break the land speed record in 1924 at 146.16 mph at Pendine Sands near Carmarthen Bay on the South Coast of Wales, driving a 350 horsepower V12 Sunbeam (now on display at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu).  Between 1924 and 1935 he broke nine land speed records.  He set his final record at the Bonneville Salt Flats on Utah USA on the 3rd September 1935 and was the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph.  Bro Campbell also set the water speed record four times, his highest speed being 141.740 mph in the Blue Bird K4 on the 19th August 1939.  Bro Campbell was initiated into Freemasonry on the 15th October 1924 into Old Uppinghamian Lodge No.4227, passed on the 9th December 1924 and raised on the 14th January 1925....

  Bro Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29, 1981) Bro Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29, 1981) was an American writer, broadcaster, and documentary filmmaker, known as a world traveler. He authored more than fifty non-fiction books, mostly travel narratives and popular biographies of explorers and military men. Between 1930 and the mid-1970s.  Lowell Thomas in Arabia, 1918 He was a member of St. John's Lodge in Boston, Massachusetts, which is one of the oldest Masonic lodges in North America. Thomas is listed among other notable Masons such as Paul Revere, Henry Ford, and George Washington.  Thomas was especially known for the writings and documentary films that turned T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) into an international celebrity.  Thomas shot dramatic footage of Lawrence in Arab dress, then returned to America and began giving public lectures in 1919 on the war in Palestine, "supported by moving pictures of veiled women, Arabs in the...

  Bro Melvin Jerome Blanc, born Blank on the 30th May 1908 in San Francisco, California USA, was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy radio programs. Bro Blanc was referred to as “The Man with a Thousand Voices” was the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil, and numerous other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons.  Blanc also voiced the Looney Tunes characters Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd along with the voice of Hanna-Barbera's television cartoons, including Barney Rubble and Dino on The Flintstones, Mr. Spacely on The Jetsons, Secret Squirrel on The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, the title character of Speed Buggy, and Captain Caveman on Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and The Flintstone Kids. Bro Blanc joined Mid-Day Lodge No.188 in Port...

  Bro Joseph Rudyard Kipling 30th December 1865 - 18th January 1936 Bro Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay India on the 30th December 1865, and was known to the family as Ruddy.  At the age of five he was brought over to England and spent five years living with a foster family in Southsea where he was miserable due to mistreatment, beatings and being victimised.   As a result of this he suffered from insomnia and poor health for the rest of his life.  At the age of 17 Rudyard returned to India and began his career as a writer beginning as the sub-editor of the Civil and Military Gazette and Pioneer in Lahore.   According to Lodge records he was Initiated on 5th April 1886.  Passed to the Degree of a Fellowcraft the following month on 3rd May 1886 and Raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason on 6th December the same year into Lodge Hope and Perseverance No.782.  He also went on to become a joining member of Independence with ...

Is Father Christmas a Freemason? I have a very serious question to put to you all. I would like to raise it with you and then do some detective work, examining the evidence that might lead us to answering it. It is a most important question that I am sure you have often asked yourself, and relates our Craft to the wider society in which we live and concerns several major issues of this season. This very serious question is "Is Father Christmas a Freemason?" Let us consider the facts of this case: Of whom does this remind you? A worthy gentleman, who is (we must admit) getting on a bit in years and is perhaps a little overweight,  who wears a very distinctive costume as the badge of his activities,  who provides the opportunity for friends and visitors to meet in fellowship,  who is surrounded by secrecy and mystery, dispenses goodwill and the charity of gifts all over the world (avoiding ostentatious public display while doing so) and is there doing it year after year! We...

  W. Bro. John Herbert Hankins A.G.R.  Born 13th June 1846 – Died 27th June 1928 Our Foundation Master was John Herbert Hankins. The Consecration, Erection, and Dedication of Manawatu Kilwinning Lodge, Scottish Constitution, and Installation of its Officers was conducted on Thursday 26 April, 1883, at the Masonic Hall, Palmerston North. John Hankins was a barrister and solicitor, and was formerly a member of Lodge Westland, No. 88, and had been a Mason for at least fourteen years with experience both in English and Scottish Constitutions.  He was one of the strong leaders of the new township, and his name crops up in the records of many and various organisations as Palmerston North was growing.  John Hankins married Agnes Sophia Wemyss in 1872 and they had four sons and three daughters.  He was articled to C.E. Button a barrister and solicitor in Hokitika and was admitted to the bar in 1876.  He then came to Foxton to offices opposite Whytes Hotel...

James Alfred Nash (1928) MWBro James Alfred Nash CBE, PGM Born 17th July, 1871 - Died 24th July,  1952 Initiated in The Manawatu Kilwinning Lodge in 1898 and installed as Master in 1904.He was honoured by Grand Lodge in 1905 as Grand Pursuivant, 1907 as Grand Director of Ceremonies. In 1907 James was installed as Master again with the promise of great things to come. Immediately after the installation he convened a special meeting at which it was unanimously decided to proceed with the erection of a Lodge room on land once owned by the Lodge. In 1912 he became Senior Grand Warden, 1934 Past Provincial Grand Master, Provincial Grand Master 1940-1946, Past Deputy Grand Master in 1946 and Past Grand Master in 1951. Awarded his 50 year service badge in 1948 he was made an Honorary Life member in 1949. In 1952 it was resolved to erect a brass plaque in memory of this great man. At the age of 13 Jimmy as he was known, went to work for Nathan’s Ready Money Store. He later became mana...