Not every important moment in a Lodge history is a consecration, an installation or a list of officers.
Ulster Lodge’s 1953 Jubilee Review included a short section headed “Unique Events”, preserving several stories that would otherwise be very easy to lose.
A father and three sons in the Lodge
For a number of years Ulster Lodge had the unusual experience of W. Bro. E. W. Evans and all three of his sons being active members at the same time.
That is a small detail, but it says something about how Lodges can become part of a family’s life across generations rather than simply a club attended by individuals.
The reigning Master married in 1936
The Jubilee Review also singled out the marriage in 1936 of the reigning Worshipful Master, W. Bro. J. McKaig.
The booklet does not give a long account of the wedding, but the fact that it was still being remembered as one of the Lodge’s distinctive events seventeen years later suggests it had become part of Lodge folklore.
A joint meeting during the war
In 1942, while London was living through the Second World War, Ulster Lodge held a joint meeting with members of the Canada Lodge.
That meeting sat within a period when Ulster Lodge was continuing to work despite wartime restrictions and air raids. The Lodge’s Jubilee history made a point of recording that it never abandoned a meeting during the war.
More than 200 Irish Freemasons at Portrush
Perhaps the most striking of the four events came in 1949.
At the request of the United Grand Lodge of England, a delegation from Ulster Lodge travelled to Portrush. There they gave an exemplification of initiation under the English Constitution to an assembly of more than 200 Irish Freemasons.
It is a wonderful reversal of the Lodge’s founding story. Ulster Lodge had been created in London by men maintaining their connection with Ulster. Nearly half a century later, members of the London Lodge were travelling back to Ulster to demonstrate English ritual to Irish brethren.
The details that make a history human
These stories are not the grand narrative of Ulster Lodge, but that is exactly why they matter. They tell us what members themselves remembered: families, friendships, journeys, ceremonies and moments that broke the normal rhythm of Lodge life.
As more records are transcribed, these are the details worth preserving alongside the formal lists of Masters and officers.
Related reading
- The day a flying bomb passed over Ulster Lodge
- Ulster Lodge and the Irish Masonic network in London
- The Ulster Lodge of Instruction
Source: Ulster Lodge No. 2972, A Jubilee Review, 1953.