NEW MARK SCOUTING LODGE FOR LONDON (If you have ever been a SCOUT read on)
The Provincial Grand Master, RW Bro. David Ashbolt, has asked W Bro. Tony Harvey, PGSD, to found a Scouting Lodge in the Mark Province of London.
The aim of the Lodge will be, “to create closer ties between Mark Masonry and Scouting in London”. It will be open to Freemasons who have, or have been in the past, a Scout and who support the aims of the Lodge. The Lodge will be named, “The Ralph Reader Lodge of Mark Master Masons”. Bro. Ralph Reader was the founder of the Gang Show and was known as the “Holborn Rover”. His son, W Bro. Bob Corp-Reader, is a distinguished London Freemason and has given the idea his full support. Members of The Scout Association will be allowed to wear the current Scout uniform to meetings and in time it is likely that other Scouting traditions will develop.
The following dates have been reserved at Mark Masons’ Hall for the regular meetings of the Lodge:
2nd Saturday in February (probable Installation)
4th Saturday in May
2nd Saturday in October
The Provincial Grand Master has asked W Bro. Tony Harvey to find founders for the Lodge and to be the Primus Master. W Bro. Harvey first joined Scouting in Greater London South East in 1968 and has been a member of the Movement ever since. He was the Prestonian Lecturer for 2012 with his lecture, “Scouting and Freemasonry: two parallel organisations” and acts for the Kindred Lodges Association (KLA) as the liaison between Scouting and Freemasonry. He founded the first Scout Mark Lodge in 2009 and was involved in managing the transition of an old Craft Lodge to become the Installed Masters’ Lodge for the Kindred Lodges Association. W Bro. Harvey has asked W Bro. Martin Payne, ProvJGD, to be the Organising Secretary and Secretary Designate of the Lodge. W Bro. Payne is a former County Secretary for Nottinghamshire and for British Groups Abroad and a former Trustee and Treasurer of the Scouts Holiday Homes Trust. He spent some years on The Scout Association’s General Purposes Committee and is an experienced officer of a number of Scouting Lodges,
The intention is to hold a founders meeting in 2017 at which the founders will discuss and agree by-laws issues, first officers, and the customs and practices to be adopted by the new Lodge.
Click on the link below to access the Scouting Lodge Leaflet
If you wish to become a founder of the proposed Lodge, please contact W Bro. Tony Harvey via tony.harvey@derbyshiremark.org.uk.
