Freemasons from every Lodge in Lincolnshire have gathered in Grimsby to consecrate the area’s 76th Lodge.
150 people saw the creation of the Armed Forces Lodge of Lincolnshire, whose membership is open to serving members and veterans. The Lodge will have its nominal base at the Freemasons’ building in Sleaford, but will hold its meetings at other Freemasons’ Halls around the Province of Lincolnshire, which stretches from The Wash to the Humber.
The first master is Bob Chalklin, who has promised it’ll be a place of friendship and welcome – but with a sprinkling of good-natured inter-services banter.
After the ceremony Bob said he felt relieved it had gone well. The run up to creation of the lodge had been just the same as the day of the consecration itself; succeeding through the combined efforts of a large number of people, to whom he was effusive in his thanks. Those thanks included a special mention for Peter Hegarty, Assistant Provincial Grand Master for the Province of East Lancashire, who had assisted by providing the new Lodge with equipment worth about £3,500 – all of which will retain references to the Lodges it came from.
Bob added that services personnel returning to civilian life often missed the comradeship offered by life in the Forces. He said: “Freemasonry offers the same thing, and as such can fill a gap which might otherwise exist in ex-servicemen’s lives. Just like the Forces, Freemasonry is a place in which to form life-long friendships with people you probably wouldn’t meet under any other circumstances.”
