Consecrated 26th May 1899
Meeting at: Johannesburg - Freemasons Hall, 8 Park Lane, Parktown
Meeting Dates: 2nd Thursday Inst Dec
Contact 082 442 9162
Lodge History
In 1896 a group of masons in Kimberley petitioned the Grand Lodge of Scotland for a new lodge, which was duly constituted as the Cosmopolitan Lodge No 838. The name reflected the Lodge's intention of being completely cosmopolitan in membership and it went so far as to carry out workings in different languages. In 1899, the members resolved to form a new 'English' Constitution lodge in Johannesburg, with the synonymous name (Kosmos) and the requirement to have an English sponsor lodge was met by Corona Lodge. The Charter Master, Bro Willem Bernard Maria Vogts, had been the Charter Master of Cosmopolitan Lodge a few years earlier.
Within months of the consecration of Kosmos, the South African war started and the lodge went into recess until March 1902. Bro Vogts remained in the chair until 1903 and retained a keen interest in the progress of the lodge during its early years despite his becoming, in 1906, the first Provincial Grand Master for the Transvaal under the Grand East of the Netherlands. Kosmos - although probably less 'cosmopolitan' than its predecessor - drew its membership from many sources, and it can probably be said to have had only one difficult period during its history, namely though the great depression of the late twenties and early thirties.
The lodge has had many members of masonic prominence in the District including in particular Wilfred Henry Hulbert, who led the Transvaal as District Grand Master from 1939 to 1942 , Charles Puzey (DG Secretary 1973/82) and Grand officers in B A D Kinahan, Dick Walwyn, John Thompson, Alan Tennant and Ken Baker.
Throughout its life, Kosmos Lodge has responded strongly to District and Grand Lodge appeals, and has given particular support to the Transvaal Masonic Educational Institution through the provision of a number of scholarships and bursaries. It is one of only three lodges in South Africa to have earned the Hallstone Jewel for contributions to the Grand Lodge War Memorial Building Fund and it has become the custom for the masters of these lodges (Boksburg, Kosmos and Rising Star of Bloemfontein) to attend each other's installations and invest the incoming Master with the Hallstone Jewel.
Over the years Kosmos Lodge may be said to have become 'characterised' as a lodge of engineers and its membership today bears this out. But the more important characteristic of the lodge, as it approaches its centenary, is its vitality, which undoubtedly rests on the recognition, within the lodge, of the importance of positive and sustained involvement of its members.
Reference: 'A Century of Brotherhood' by A A Cooper & D E G Vieler