Visit from Canada

Past Master’s Great Grandson visits from Canada

W. M. Mike Perkins & W. Bro. Rod Mills

At the meeting of St Osyth’s Priory Lodge No: 2063 at the Colvin Memorial Temple, Clacton on Sea in April 2019, we were delighted to receive as a visitor W. Bro Rod Mills from Battlefield Lodge No: 714 Ontario, Canada. Rod’s Great Grandfather was our Worshipful Master Edward Mills in 1901. In this year Queen Victoria died and Edward V11 became King.

W. Bro. Edward Mills was Senior Warden in 1900 and Junior Warden in 1899. The same year Coronation Chapter No: 2063 was proposed and three years later Consecrated. He was a Steward in 1896 which is twelve years after St. Osyth’s Priory Lodge was consecrated in 1884.

During the meeting, the Worshipful Master presented Rod with a facsimile of the original minutes of his ancestor’s Installation (which had been read in open Lodge that night) along with a copy of the summonses from his Initiation, Installation and his first meeting as Worshipful Master.

He was also presented with the history of the Temple and Clacton on Sea in the early 1900s, an Essex Provincial tie, a collar, an Essex Jewel from the 1800s and lapel badges for our Lodge No: 2063.

W. Bro Rod Mills replied, thanking all the Brethren for the magnificent welcome he had received not only for himself but also for his wife who had been taken for a meal by our ladies. He then presented to the Lodge a Jewel that had belonged a past Director of Ceremonies of our lodge, which had been in his Great Grandfathers possession. Rod also gave some brethren a Canadian maple leaf lapel badge No: 714.

The Worshipful Master Mike Perkins recorded his thanks to W. Bro. Peter Harris, Bro. Doug Carpenter, the Secretary Bro. Stephen Hutchins, Bro. John Richardson and W. Bro. Ian Bartlett for all the work they had carried out to put together such a wonderful package for our Brother from Canada to take home with him.

A brief Masonic history of the Mills family: On the 19th April 1982, W. Bro. Ted Mills (Edward Mills son) assumed the Chair of King Solomon for the Initiation of his son Rod at Battlefield Lodge No. 714, Stoney Creek, Canada. The lodge celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 2015.

Category: Masonic interest
Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.