Stepping down

Yesterday I relinquished the Mastership of the Veritatem Sequere Lodge No.9615, Hertfordshire's Research Lodge. I Installed the new Worshipful Master in the Chair of the Lodge, having occupied it myself for the previous twelve months.

The ceremony took place in Radlett, Hertfordshire, after which the new Worshipful Master gave his Installation Lecture. Once the Lodge was closed, we retired to the bar for a quick drink before we ate a meal (called a Festive Board in Freemasonry), which – as is traditional in the Research Lodge – was followed by a question-and-answer session about the subject of the lecture.

Although I am no longer the Worshipful Master of the Lodge, I am still the Province of Hertfordshire's Provincial Grand Orator, and I will continue to visit Lodges both inside and outside the Province to deliver lectures on Masonic topics. Surprisingly, (or not so if you know my areas of interest) most of my lectures touch upon subjects that have a considerable military content. They include:

• Sir Charles Warren: Soldier, Explorer, Engineer, Policeman, Politician, and Freemason
• Masonic references in the works of Rudyard Kipling
• Freemasonry in the British Army
• The Halsey's of Hertfordshire
• Brothers in Arms and Brothers in the Lodge: The stories of the members of The Grove Park Lodge No.2732 who took part in the First World War

I have turned the last of these into a book – BROTHERS IN ARMS AND BROTHERS IN THE LODGE – and have recently published a book – MASTERS AT WAR VOLUME 1 – about the members of the Hertfordshire Masters' Lodge who had military careers before and during the First World War.

It is nice to be able to combine two of my hobbies – Freemasonry and military history – and I only wish that I could include wargaming in the mix as well.