It was the last meeting, but one, of the year when the Provincial Grand Master, RW Bro Richard Olliver, and his team of Active Provincial Officers (pictured above) visited Hungerford Lodge of MMM No. 1342 on Tuesday 11th July 2017.
As he pointed out the last official visit to the Lodge was on 8th July 2008 when RW Bro Peter James Sands was Provincial Grand Master and he was Provincial Grand Secretary. At that time W Bro Roy Waller was Worshipful Master and he Advanced his son Martin, the current Worshipful Master, W Bro Graham Reynolds at that time had not been Advanced.
Pictured above with the PGM and his Deputy VW Bro Graham Seeman, PGJO are:
Bro Mark Wiltshire to whom the PGM presented his Grand Lodge Certificate (1st left)
Mark Benevolent Awards were presented to:
W Bro Jim Payen, PM, PGStdB – Patron (2nd left)
W Bro John Peck, PM, PPGJD – Patron (3rd left)
Bro Brian De Lara – Life Governor (1st right)
W Bro Graham Reynolds – Worshipful Master – Grand Patron Lodge Award ( 4th right)
When presenting these awards on behalf of the Mark Benevolent Fund the Provincial Grand Master thanked all the recipients for their personal generosity and when presenting the Lodge award to the Worshipful Master, W Bro Graham Reynolds he thanked all the members of the Lodge for their collective generosity.
Following all this it was time to Advance Bro Brigadier (Rtd) Peter Richard Sharpe (2nd right) into the degree of Mark Master Mason which was done in a most capable manner by the Worshipful Master and his officers.
It was the PGM who encouraged Bro Peter to join the degree when he met him at a meeting of Thames & Chilterns Rose Croix. Peter was there in his capacity as a visiting Inspector General, at the invitation of our own Inspector General, W Bro Roy Stone, PAGDC, to give a most enlightening talk on Freemasonry in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces. It was at the bar when the PGM was introduced to Peter and during their chat he was asked, as you would expect, if he was a Mark Mason. His answer was no but he felt it was time he should join and would like to join somewhere other than his home county of Wiltshire. Needless to say an application form was emailed to Peter the following day and was returned in great haste. Hungerford being one of the nearest Lodges to Peter’s home and as the PGM would be making an official visit later in the year it was agreed that Hungerford would be the ideal Lodge. The rest is history,
