Page 41 - Essex Mason (Issue 87) Online Version

Remembrance Day

VE Day and our Essex

Regiment Masonic Heritage

By W Bro Tony Hales TD

Officially May Day Bank Holidays are held on the first Monday of May, but for
2020 it has been moved to Friday 8th May as part of the 75th anniversary of the
VE Day commemorations.
In WW2 The Essex Regiment (‘The Regiment’) fought many battles throughout
North West Europe, Tobruk, Alamain, Monte Cassino and Kohima. Also the
10th Battalion converted ‘en-masse’ to the 9th Parachute Battalion and fought
the battle at Merville Gun Battery after which Merville Barracks in Colchester is
named.
Freemasonry has always attracted servicemen willing to give their lives for the
freedom of others to practice Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. In the Age of
Enlightenment, as the membership of Freemasonry increased, the first military
lodge was formed in 1732 by the 1st Foot (The Royal Scots) and 200 years later
in 1932 the 574th military lodge was formed by the 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars.
The 44th Foot was raised in 1741 and the 56th in 1755 becoming the ‘East Essex’
and ‘West Essex’ in 1782 and the 1st and 2nd Battalions ‘The Essex Regiment’ in
1881. In 1759 at Quebec under Bro Major General James Wolfe, The Regiment
fought alongside the future Primus Provincial Grand Master of Essex, then serving
in the Royal Navy, R W Bro Thomas Dunkerley.
Four military lodges were formed by The Regiment with Warrants from four
different Grand Lodges. The first in 1760 with the “King George III Lodge”
(Scottish) followed in 1762 (Provincial Grand Lodge of Quebec), 1765 (Irish) and
in 1784 (the Moderns) with the “Rainsford Lodge” named after Major General
Charles Rainsford, Colonel of the Regiment from 1781 to 1809.
The gallantry of The Regiment was rewarded with six Victoria Crosses, distinction
in many campaigns including the Peninsula War, Waterloo, Crimea, South
Africa and 62 battle honours in WW1 with the loss of over 8,000 men from 31
Battalions. In 1931 the Freemasons of Essex presented the West Gallery Front to
the Regimental Chapel at Warley as a memorial to all the Freemasons of Essex
who died in WW1.
If you are interested in Masonic research or have served in the Armed Forces
and would like to be part of a Demonstration team or an Oration team in the
new Lodge of Daily Advancement which meets on the first Tuesday of February,
May and October (Installation) in Chelmsford please contact Lawrie Morrisson
the Lodge Secretary at secretary@loda.org.uk.
Another Freemason, who was also a Lodge secretary, did more than any other
person to change the then despised and unwanted way people regarded the
Army in peacetime.

Never a soldier himself, Bro
Rudyard Kipling’s Barrack
Room Ballads and other
poems, conveyed the foibles
of soldiers to the hearts and
minds of a population which
began to appreciate far more
the dangers and hardships
of military life. This change
helped foster numerous
military charities and welfare
organisations, many of which
still survive today.

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