When W. Bro. Michael Holland first made contact with The Marine Lodge No. 232 in November last year, it was to seek their Secretary’s assistance to provide him with a copy of the Summons and the Minutes of their Lodge meeting held on 10th December 1962, when the Lodge was still meeting in Calcutta and W.Bro. Tom Wise, a member of our District was Initiated. As per a previous news article on this site, W.Bro. Wise had completed 50 years in Freemasonry and W.Bro. Holland had been asked to present him with his 50 year Certificate on behalf of the District Grand Master at a meeting of the Concord Lodge No. 757 in the Province of East Lancs.
W.Bro. George Reed the Marine Lodge Secretary was most helpful and as well as providing W.Bro. Holland with the information he requested, extended an invitation to W.Bro. Holland to attend the 1st March 2014 Meeting of The Lodge at Nailsea in The Province of Somerset, where the Lodge now meets.
The business for the meeting was planned to be an Initiation but unfortunately, the Candidate’s daughter was taken into hospital a day or so before and as such he was unable to be present. Therefore at the request of W.Bro Reed, W.Bro Holland was asked to deliver a talk on the History of Freemasonry in India to nearly 50 Brethren as an alternative item of business.
The talk covered from the time from when several Brethren petitioned The Grand Lodge of England in 1728 to constitute a Provincial Grand Lodge in Calcutta, along with the first English Lodge No. 72 being Consecrated in Fort Willam, Calcutta in 1730, through the establishment of the District Grand Lodges of Bengal, Madras, Bombay and Northern India, to the Consecration of the Grand Lodge of India by the “Parent Constitutions” in 1961 and up to the present day. The Marine Lodge itself which was originally founded in 1776, Constituted in Calcutta in 1801 and transferred back to England in 1975 was mentioned in the talk. This was because it was the Lodge into which only the second person of Indian ethnicity a Bro. Meer Bundeh Ali Khan was Initiated into the Craft in 1812. As pure coincidence, the minutes of that very meeting were read out by the Lodge Secretary earlier in the proceedings, describing the events of that very evening in March 1812.
W.Bro Holland’s talk was warmly received by all present and concluded with an excellent question and answer session in which numerous and varied questions were raised by the Brethren.
The meeting was followed by a sumptuous Festive Board lunch where W. Bro. Holland was afforded the kindest hospitality from the Worshipful Master, W.Bro. Michael Barfoot-Franks and all the Brethren of the Lodge.
W. Bro. Holland, (Centre left) the W.M. of The Marine Lodge No. 232 E.C., W. Bro. Michael Barfoot-Franks (Centre Right) and other members of the Lodge after the Meeting on 1st March 2014. W.Bro. George Reed the Lodge Secretary is far right.