Technically it is not a banner but a standard ... but standard didn't seem to scan quite as well when I wrote the title of this blog entry.
I was very busy yesterday as I was attending the annual meeting of the Masonic Province of Hertfordshire, which is where my Mother Lodge is situated. The meeting took place at Freemason's Hall, Great Queen Street, in central London, and I was appointed to the rank of Provincial Grand Standard Bearer. (Luckily being a Masonic Provincial Grand Standard Bearer is not as dangerous as being a regimental standard bearer during the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, or nineteenth centuries. To my knowledge no one is going to be shooting at me ... at least I hope they won't!)
This role means that over the coming year I will be attending meetings at numerous Masonic lodges throughout the Province of Hertfordshire as part of the Provincial 'team'. Being Provincial Grand Standard Bearer is a great honour, and I am looking forward to meeting lots of new people over the forthcoming year.
I was very busy yesterday as I was attending the annual meeting of the Masonic Province of Hertfordshire, which is where my Mother Lodge is situated. The meeting took place at Freemason's Hall, Great Queen Street, in central London, and I was appointed to the rank of Provincial Grand Standard Bearer. (Luckily being a Masonic Provincial Grand Standard Bearer is not as dangerous as being a regimental standard bearer during the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, or nineteenth centuries. To my knowledge no one is going to be shooting at me ... at least I hope they won't!)
This role means that over the coming year I will be attending meetings at numerous Masonic lodges throughout the Province of Hertfordshire as part of the Provincial 'team'. Being Provincial Grand Standard Bearer is a great honour, and I am looking forward to meeting lots of new people over the forthcoming year.
The crest of the Masonic Province of Hertfordshire
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Congratulations Bob.
ReplyDeletePete,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks!
All the best,
Bob
Well done Bob - now all you need to eight hundred fighting Englishmen, a colonel and the band.
ReplyDeleteMy congratulations to you, Bob . . . may you enjoy your service (and may no one shoot at you . . . but if they do, may they miss).
ReplyDelete-- Jeff
Conrad Kinch,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your congratulations.
Well yesterday I had a Grand Master, numerous other important Grand Officers, and nearly a thousand Freemasons around me ... and an organist!
Not quite a Colonel, 800 Englishmen, and a band ... but almost!
All the best,
Bob
Bluebeard Jeff,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your congratulations and best wishes. I am sure that my year in office will zip by safely!
All the best,
Bob
Congratulations Bob, my one time as a banner bearer was a bit more comic, although it didn't seem so to me at the time. We had a change of command ceremony for our squadron and I held the squadron flag so it could be presented by the outgoing commander to the new commander and then back to me. Well there was a stiff breeze and the guidon would snap smartly in the wind and the tip slap me, also smartly in the face, all though the ceremony. It all went off without a hitch nonetheless and the audience never noticed I had a few red marks. As an aside, during a pass in review, I could hardly keep a straight face when they play Sousa's "The Liberty Bell" march, which is generally more famous as the theme song to Monty Python's Flying Circus.
ReplyDeleteBut again, was was never shot at while holding a flag. Although at another ceremony our bugler was assaulted by bees while playing, but that is another story.
CoastConFan,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your kind congratulations.
You sound as if you had quite an 'interesting' time as a standard bearer ... but I must admit that trying to keep your face straight during the playing of 'Liberty Bell' sounds like more of a trial.
I have practiced carrying the standard and discovered that the ferrel on the top of the pole is very sharp and quite capable of injuring someone if I don't handle it properly.
All the best,
Bob
Congratulations, Bob! A well-deserved honor!
ReplyDeleteI was a color-bearer for the ACW re-enactment Co. A, 1st Georgia "Irish Jasper Greens" in a Saint Patrick's Day parade in Savannah. I ended the day's several mile march with a lot more respect for pikemen!
-Steve
Steven Page (Steve),
ReplyDeleteThanks for your congratulations. They are much appreciated.
It sounds like you had a far more difficult task that I am going to have to perform ... which is to bring the standard in at the beginning of a meeting and then to take it out at the end. I'll be hard put to have to walk more than 50 yards all told!
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteMany congratulations on being honoured in this fashion - do you have to tackle any Renaissance style Italian flag waving?
All the best,
DC
David Crook,
ReplyDeleteThe space I will have to operate in is usually going to be so tight that I will be hard pressed not to hit anyone just carrying the standard in and out, let alone doing anything fancy with it!
All the best,
Bob
Congrats, Bob! Anytime that we are honored by our peers is a good thing. Looks like you have nearly a thousand possible recruits for the wargaming hobby, as well. :)
ReplyDeleteJustin Penwith,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your congratulations. It was a great privilege to be given this honour by my fellow Freemasons.
Funnily enough I have discovered another wargaming Freemason as a result of this blog entry; all I've got to do now is to work on the others!
All the est,
Bob
Congratulations Bob! Just read this. I have just finished my year as an active provincial officer in Berkshire. A great experince and privilage although they work you quite hard here! Lots of visits and installation meetings. Quite how the v senior ones do it year after year is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteI have only been to Grand Lodge once for a quarterly communications meeting. It was an unmissable experience and if anyone is in London, mason or non-mason, it is well worth going on a guided tour as it is a facinating building. It is frequently used in all sorts of film and TV shows.
fraternal regards,
Guy
Guy,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your congratulations. I have my first outing as part of the Provincial escort on Friday this week and Tuesday of the following week. I then have three more Provincial visits booked before Christmas ... plus the possibility of more if required.
I know a PProvAGM (he is the most senior member of my Mother Lodge) and he still does at least one visit per week to help out the active members of the senior leadership.
I regularly visit Freemasons Hall as I am member of a London Lodge, and I totally agree about its interior. During one visit we were warned that we might hear the sound of gunfire as they were shooting an episode of 'Spooks' in one of the nearby rooms.
Sincerely and Fraternally,
Bob