Memories of a Freemason – Roger Levy PPGSwdB

I’ve had a slightly different and varied time in Freemasonry. I was initiated into Hadassah Lodge 4871 in Sheffield in 1970 but I didn’t join The Lodge of Dawn until 2003.

My late father died in 1965. He wasn’t a mason but in 1969 a close friend of my father’s rang me and said “can I come and see you?” I had no idea what he wanted to see me about, but he came round and said “I promised your Dad that I’d get you into the lodge. Next year is my year in The Chair, and I want you to be my first candidate”. His name was Sydney Speir and coincidentally he also moved to Leeds.

I moved to Leeds in 1973 and started visiting The Lodge of Dawn soon after that. I joined Chapter in Leeds, whilst being in Craft in Sheffield, which I suppose is a bit unusual. In time my work took me to Bradford and travelling to and from Leeds to Sheffield just became too much. In addition, my travelling companion, W Bro. Leslie Marten stopped going too, so I left Hadassah and formally joined Dawn in 2003. 30 years of travelling the M1 had finally caught up with me.

Although I lived in Leeds from 1973 I stayed on the ladder at Hadassah in Sheffield. The year before I was due into the Chair at Hadassah it looked like my career might take me away from the area. I explained this to the Past Masters and, with their agreement, I stayed as Senior Warden for a second year. It so happened that I didn’t move away, so I was installed into the Chair a year later than I should have been, which was 1986. Hadassah’s masonic calendar runs January to December so I was installed in January 1986. My opposite numbers at The Lodge of Dawn at that time were the late W Bro. Bernard Fearn (1985/86) and the late W Bro. Sidney Loofe (1986/87).

On the day of my installation I remember two things. The moment that I was actually ‘placed’ in the chair, was very moving, particularly in front of so many visiting Grand and Provincial Officers and of course the many Past Masters of your own Lodge. I remember suddenly thinking ‘wow, this is really happening”. It makes it finally feel real. The second thing that stands out was at the Festive Board when the whole lodge sang The Masters Song. I found it very moving….. It was a very enjoyable evening. I also had the great pleasure of not only having the three Grand Officers in the lodge at the time of my installation in attendance, but I also had one of the Assistant Provincial Grand Masters there too.

The other thing that was memorable for me about the whole installation was my Installing Master, W Bro. Edward Patnick. I was initiated the month before Edward, so we were initiated, passed and raised together and we became very good friends throughout our masonic careers up the ladder. As I mentioned, I stayed as Senior Warden for two years which meant that instead of me installing Edward, he installed me.

The one thing that stands out now is that the Worship Master made THREE full toasts (Grand Officers, the Provincial Officers and the Officers of the Lodge) as well as responding to the Master’s toast. And each one was a speech. FOUR speeches…. I’ve still got my speeches from that night in my file, written on index cards. It was a fantastic evening, and I loved every minute of it.
Tell us about your experiences of your year in The Chair.

I had a very full year with three candidates. Remember at this point I lived in Leeds so was travelling to and from Sheffield for each night; Ladies Nights, visiting, installations for Masters in other lodges, committee meetings….. up to an hour each way each time. My record was six trips in eight days! Fortunately I had a very understanding boss, who was also a mason. Whilst there are 25 lodges in Sheffield, there’s only one Masonic Hall, Tapton Hall, so I was there each and every time, fortunately the catering was very good! The worst part was that after every meeting I had an hour’s journey back up to Leeds to look forward to…. But on the plus side, I shared some of the driving for the trips with Leslie Marten, and when I was on my own I spent the time learning ritual, using a cassette (younger brethren may have to Google that….) in the car with a recording on it.

My Ladies Night stands out, but looking back now, it was a huge pleasure to welcome an inter-visit from all of my friends at The Lodge of Dawn to Hadassah. The visit took place in the May of my year in The Chair. Historically there were always regular inter-visits between The Lodge of Dawn and Hadassah which were always well-supported, and with Leslie also active in both and being my Junior Warden at the time, they were great occasions. I also visited The Lodge of Dawn in November that year. It so happened that it was for the initiation of Howard Hyams, which was nice as he’s married to my second cousin.

The other thing that stands out is that at the end of my year, in January 1987, as a culmination, I had the great honour to install the Master for the Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary meeting of Haddassah Lodge.

In Sheffield the Masters Circle is known as ‘The North East Corner’. At the time, as well as visiting each other for our relative installations we also socialised, along with our wives, outside formal masonic meetings. We’d get together for social events, lunches, dinners etc and even our wives got to know each other which was nice.

I do remember one of the first NE Corner social events, at Tapton Hall. As a welcome into the group, each newly installed Master had to perform a ‘party piece’; a sort of initiation ceremony of sorts. I remember that I performed the then well-know song ‘Sam, Sam, pick up tha musket’ by Stanley Holloway, but amended to be about Masonry and entitled ‘Sam, Sam, pick up Tha Gavel’ and delivered in a broad Yorkshire accent. See below for the original version.

Whilst the ritual itself didn’t really differ, the main thing was that at that time the Master delivered everything, the whole ceremony. There was no sharing of duties. The other thing that was different was that we didn’t meet every week for Lodges of Instruction. We only did one practise per ceremony. So there was one practise for a first, one for a second, one for a third and one only for the installation. In Hadassah there are 10 meetings (no July or August) so in total we only met for 14 nights over a masonic year. Ten meetings also meant that you only had eight meetings available for ceremonies, which meant that with three candidates, we had one double ceremony, which was usually a Passing.

In the lodge itself, it was the IPM who prompted rather than a Preceptor. The only problem was that, along with the IPM prompting, there would always be many prompts from all those seated further to the left… and not all the prompts were the same! I’d often have to turn to my left and whisper “just ONE prompter please….”. The DofC ‘ran’ the lodge. He was a Past Master, who held the role for an extended period of time rather than changing annually. As mentioned by W Bro. Leslie Marten previously, the Hadassah DofC at that time was Leslie’s father-in-law, W Bro Morris Newman, who was a lovely man, but ran the lodge just like a Regimental Sergeant Major.

Enjoy it, it’s a wonderful year. Relish every minute of it. For the vast majority of us, it is the highlight of one’s masonic career so make the most of it. Don’t see visiting as a ‘task’ or a ‘burden’ – the more you do, the more memorable it makes your year. Make sure you visit as many other lodges as you can as part of your Masters Circle.

The companionship. You become friends not only with more people, but across different age groups and with people you wouldn’t normally meet. It has introduced me to so many different brethren, making new friends in many different places. My unusual dual-location Freemasonry was also a particular pleasure. The friendship is by a mile the strongest thing. But it also improves people. It gets you out of your comfort zone. It often helps people to achieve things that they wouldn’t have thought that they could, such as learn and deliver many pages of ritual. It encourages us to be the best we can be and, often without you realising, makes you exceed your own expectations.