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Provincial

The Square and The Scalpel

Working Together by W Bro Tony Hales

ust a few minutes’ walk from Freemasons
JHall in Great Queen Street is Lincoln’s Inn
Fields where the Royal College of Surgeons
(RCS) and its predecessors has been based since
1796. Renowned throughout the world for its
prestigious qualification of FRCS (Fellow of the
RCS) there are many famous Surgeons who have
‘exchanged the Scalpel for the Square’ and joined
their Masonic Brethren in raising money for others
and doing good works in the Community.
The Rt.Hon. Lord Ribeiro CBE FRCS

The Livery Company of Barber-Surgeons was established in 1540 but an Act of Parliament in 1745 split the two and by a
subsequent Royal Charter ‘The Royal College of Surgeons in London’ was formed in 1800. With a new Charter in 1843 and
a name change to ‘The Royal College of Surgeons of England’, the RCS has become renowned for maintaining the highest
standards of Professional Membership, Training, and Research.
Facilitating cutting-edge research for surgery is expensive and like any other registered charity the RCS relies heavily on
donations, so to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of Grand Lodge in 1967, every Freemason in England and Wales was
invited to donate £1. More than £580,000 was raised for the first Masonic charity with non-masonic objectives ‘to further, in
conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons, research in the science of surgery’ and an annual research fellowship scheme
was established.
Applications come from qualified doctors, who are members of the RCS by examination (which has only a 30% to 40% pass
rate) and hope to become Consultants. Fellowships are particularly helpful for those who want to be Academic Surgeons
i.e. Professors or Senior Lecturers in medical schools attached to the NHS, operating and running clinics whilst teaching and
continuing their research.

A major initiative taken by VW.Bro Paul Reeves, our Dep ProvGM in Charge, has been to highlight the support of Freemasonry
for the RCS. In November 2020 the Province of Essex arranged a joint online event hosted by the RCS entitled ‘The Science
behind the Scalpel’ with five short informative talks but a technical glitch on the night reduced the impact. The RCS has now
produced a video with a playlist and each talk can be viewed individually.
Professor Peter Hutchinson, Director of Clinical Research at the RCS introduces the event and then describes some of the
research work currently being undertaken including Covid-19 specific projects and the importance of the financial support of
Freemasonry.
St Luke in Essex No 8714 Lodge member, RW.Bro the Rt. Hon Lord Ribeiro, Kt CBE FRCS, Senior Grand Warden “until Covid-19
brought proceedings to a close rather abruptly” explains more about the selection of Research Fellows for Fellowships of the
Freemason’s Fund for Surgical research.
VW.Bro Paul Reeves gives Brethren the background and the numbers behind the donations from both Craft and Holy Royal
Arch Freemasons since the original research fund was established in 1967 and the future commitment of Essex Freemasons to
surgical research.
Two former Freemason Research Fellows, Robert Tyler and Tom Jovic, share their cutting- edge research in genetic mutations
to improve abdominal cancer outcomes and 3D printing in plastic surgery and they each describe the beneficial impacts, as
well as their appreciation to Freemasonry, in facilitating these research projects.

The new RCS produced video with a playlist for the five short presentations can be viewed by scanniong this QR
code with your mobile device

Southend and Essex MASONIC WELFARE TRUST

Suppliers of Equipment
Wheelchairs, Electric Scooters, Zimmer Frames ect.

Free of charge to Freemasons and their families within the Province of Essex to aid the recovery of
those suffering from illness or recuperating from surgery
Registered under Charities Acts 266577
The contact number for all enquiries is 07732 378656
https://www.stgilescentre.org.uk/semwt.php
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