A century of friendship in sight of the Purbeck Hills

1921

A new lodge for Purbeck

After the war of 1914–18 the newly formed Tank Corps was based at Worgret Camp near Wareham, at Bovington and at Lulworth, in sight of the Purbeck Hills. Among its officers were several enthusiastic Freemasons, and they decided the district needed a new lodge. It is a connection the Lodge is still proud of.

The new lodge was sponsored by the Wareham Lodge of Unity No. 386 and energetically pursued by Captain H. F. T. Blowey OBE and Dr K. J. Courtenay, with the help of Colonel G. P. Symes MVO, the Provincial Grand Secretary.

Choosing a name took some time. “The Imperial Service Lodge” was thought too sweeping. Colonel Woods suggested “Godfrey de Bouillon”. The Dorset Military Lodge, the Dorset Tank Lodge and the Bovington Lodge were all proposed and turned down. Finally, on 6 September 1921, Captain Blowey suggested “The Purbeck Lodge” as acceptable to the locality and to the neighbouring lodges. Grand Lodge agreed, and the Warrant was dated 7 September 1921.

The proposed first Master, Lieutenant Colonel H. K. Woods DSO, caused some debate: he had never been Master of a lodge, and Grand Lodge could find no precedent for a new lodge being ruled by anyone other than a Past Master. After much discussion it was allowed.

The Lodge was consecrated at the Masonic Hall, Wareham, on Tuesday 15 November 1921 by the Provincial Grand Master, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Kennedy Woods DSO was installed as its first Master.

1921–1939

Early years: a crest, a Bible and a new home

The Lodge first met in Wareham, in rooms belonging to the Lodge of Unity. At only its second meeting, in December 1921, the brethren balloted for ten joining members. One was Lieutenant Edgar Myles VC DSO of the 1st Depot Tank Battalion at Wool. The ballot was in his favour.

The crest bearing a stylised Corfe Castle first appeared on the agenda for October 1922. It has been on every summons since.

Many founders were posted away in the 1920s, some as far as India and China, and the Secretary’s job became an international one: one brother, finally traced to India after years without paying, sent his apologies and his arrears in rupees.

Things improved through the later 1920s as more local men joined. By 1927 the Lodge had 55 members. In 1924 it adopted the Emulation ritual, and in 1928 John Wordsworth Bingham joined. He served the Lodge for more than forty years, latterly as a famously precise Director of Ceremonies.

In 1934 the Lodge of Unity’s building in Wareham was due for demolition. By then many regular members lived around Poole and Bournemouth, and the Lodge accepted an invitation to become tenants at Branksome Masonic Hall, 57 Ashley Road, Parkstone, at £30 a year including the services of a Tyler. The first meeting at Branksome was held on 7 November 1934. Purbeck Lodge has met there ever since.

1929

The Volume of the Sacred Law

In 1929 W. Bro H. A. Roberts of Surrey offered a Bible to any lodge in the Province that lacked one. Purbeck, “the baby lodge in the Province” with no home of its own, accepted at once.

It was then 176 years old. It had been in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and was given to Lord and Lady Lavington when he was appointed Governor of Jamaica, before passing to a Colonel of the 2nd Life Guards. It was presented to the Lodge in June 1929. Every new Master has signed it at his installation since, and it still takes pride of place in the Lodge.

1939–1945

The war years

On 4 September 1939 the United Grand Lodge of England suspended all lodge meetings. When they resumed, Purbeck met when it could, usually on Saturday afternoons. More than half the members were away serving, so a handful of brethren would meet and double up on offices simply to keep the Lodge open. They managed it throughout the war, and by 1944 the Lodge was back to its usual ten meetings a year.

1946–1979

Traditions that last

The Lodge marked its 25th anniversary in November 1946. In 1950 Past Masters were first invited to take the offices and work the ceremony for an evening, beginning the Past Masters’ Night that continues today. In 1951 Purbeck organised the annual meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Dorset at Bournemouth Town Hall, attended by the Grand Master.

In 1955 Mr Harry White was elected for initiation but died before the ceremony could take place. He left the Lodge £100 in his will, and it paid for the Lodge banner, consecrated on 1 October 1958.

The Festive Board in those days meant trestle tables, no tablecloths, half-pint bottles of beer and a meal delivered by van in hay boxes, all for half a crown. Installation nights brought out tablecloths and the mess silver from Bovington. The Lodge’s own Class of Instruction began at the Branksome Station Hotel in 1960, and in 1971 the Lodge celebrated its 50th anniversary.

From 1978 the Wimborne Salvation Army Band came to play carols at the December meeting. The Salvation Army Band still comes each Christmas.

1977–1980

Hands across the water

It began with a car club twinning and a pint at the Square and Compass at Worth Matravers, where a visiting photographer from Rouen became very interested in the pub sign. Through him, a Past Master of Purbeck was introduced to W. Bro Alain Bossard of Rouen, who had served with the French Resistance and shared his ambition to twin with an English lodge.

Brethren of Loge Amitié Normande first visited Purbeck in April 1979, and on 2 July 1980 Grand Lodge agreed the twinning, the first in Dorset. The ceremony took place in Rouen in October 1980, on Amitié Normande’s 50th anniversary, with nearly 300 brethren and guests at the dinner. Purbeck gave a marble tablet showing hands across the water. Amitié Normande gave a parchment in French and English and a set of gavels, still used by the Master and Wardens and handed on at each Installation.

1970s to today

Friendship and community

The heart of the Lodge has always been its people and the families around them. Over the years brethren have opened their gardens and businesses for summer pig roasts, garden parties and family days. Ladies’ evenings have been a highlight of the Lodge year since the 1930s, and the children’s Christmas parties of the 1950s, with films, games and Father Christmas, are still remembered.

Friendships reach beyond the Lodge too. Brethren visit neighbouring lodges every year, play a long-running skittles match with Boscombe Lodge that raises money for charity, and in 2017 joined two neighbouring lodges at Wareham for a shared ceremony to mark 300 years of English Freemasonry. The Lodge Almoner keeps in touch with members who are unwell and with the widows of the Lodge, so nobody is forgotten.

Charity runs through it all: from the 1988 Festival, when the Lodge was recognised for its fundraising, to raffles held online during the pandemic so the giving never stopped.

Brethren who served

Proud of those who served

Founded by soldiers, the Lodge has counted many servicemen among its members. Lieutenant Edgar Myles VC DSO joined in 1921, and in 2019 the Lodge was represented when the Grand Master unveiled a Victoria Cross Remembrance Stone at Freemasons’ Hall honouring him and others. John Kerans, initiated here aged twenty, later commanded HMS Amethyst in the Yangtze Incident of 1949. Major Stuart Syrad OBE MC RM, who joined in 1978 and passed away in 2021, entertained the brethren for years with tales of a remarkable career.

1980–2021

To the centenary

In 1980 the Province of Dorset celebrated its bicentenary and presented the Lodge with a commemorative plate. Membership peaked at around 96 in the mid-1980s. The Lodge celebrated its 75th anniversary in November 1996.

In 2017, for the tercentenary of English Freemasonry, Purbeck joined the Lodge of Unity No. 386 and the Lodge of St Martin No. 7986 at Wareham, each lodge passing three brethren in one ceremony, a nod to the Lodge’s Wareham roots.

The 2019 Ladies’ Evening was held at St Giles House, home of the Earls of Shaftesbury, 98 years after the 9th Earl consecrated the Lodge, with the 12th Earl and Countess as guests of honour.

The pandemic stopped meetings in March 2020. The Lodge kept going online, with virtual meetings and raffles, and met again in October 2021. On 15 November 2021 Purbeck Lodge was one hundred years old, and the brethren celebrated with a dinner dance in Bournemouth.