The Manawatu Freemason

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....

  Rowland Hussey Macy (1822–1877) is remembered as the man who changed retail forever. Fewer people know that he was also a Freemason. Macy was a member of Merrimack Lodge in Haverhill, Massachusetts, where he opened his first dry goods store in 1851. Those early years were rough—between 1843 and 1855 he opened four stores in Massachusetts and one in California during the Gold Rush. All of them failed. But instead of quitting, he studied what went wrong and kept going. Born on Nantucket into a Quaker family, Macy went to sea at 15 on a whaling ship called the Emily Morgan.  During that voyage he got a red star tattoo on his forearm—a symbol that later became the famous Macy’s star logo. In 1858, he moved to New York City and opened “R. H. Macy Dry Goods” at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street.  His first day made only $11.08. By the end of that first year, the store had done over $85,000 in sales. That shop became the foundation of the modern department store. Macy introduced id...

Sir Alexander Fleming was born in East Ayrshire, Scotland, on 6 August 1881 and he is best known for having discovered penicillin, which is still used to treat bacterial infections today. He moved to London at the age of 13 and later trained as a doctor. He qualified with distinction in 1906 and began research at St Mary's Hospital Medical School at the University of London under Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer in vaccine therapy. In 1928, while studying the influenza virus, Fleming noticed that mould had developed accidentally on a set of dishes being used to grow the staphylococci germ.  The mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. Fleming experimented further and named the active substance penicillin.  This discovery would change the world of medicine forever and cement Fleming's place as one of the world's most famous scientists.  In 1944, Fleming was knighted by King George VI and won the Nobel Prize a year later. In 1909 at the age of 27, Fleming was in...

  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...