On Friday 14th October 2022 at the St Giles Masonic Centre in Colchester, the members of Lucas and Lisle Lodge No 8456 welcomed 40 visitors and guests to their golden anniversary meeting. This was the largest number in their 50-year history.
On behalf of Paul Tarrant, the Provincial Grand Master of Essex, Assistant Provincial Grand Master, Graham Dickerson was pleased to present a Long Service Certificate for 60 years in Freemasonry to Tommy Smith the only surviving founder member and promote him to a Past Provincial Senior Grand Warden.
Born in 1933, Tommy had already been a Mason for ten years when he became one of the 18 Founders and was appointed as the Assistant Secretary. There was much for Tommy to do in 1972 to help make the new Lodge successful including organising a five-course celebratory banquet, arranging a ladies’ festival, compiling a new set of bye-laws and drafting aspects of the ritual for future working in the Lodge. Tommy Smith said that in his 60 years as a Freemason 'The one thing that has not changed is brotherly love, relief and truth'. These tenets form the basis of the four principles Freemasons use to help define their path through life: integrity, friendship, respect and charity.
For fifty years the high standard of ritual in the Lodge has been upheld and the visitors were fortunate to see the current Lodge Secretary, Tony Flint, deliver an eventful ceremony in the second degree with a long presentation of the working tools and an explanation of the tracing board. His fervour and sincerity held the attention of the candidate, Paul Marshall, throughout.
Having twice been Master of the Lodge, in 2007 and 2019-21, Michael Lappage gave an informative presentation of the Lodge history including the family tree which traced its origins back through Colcestria Lodge No 7123 and Comrades Lodge No. 2976 to Angel Lodge No. 51 which had held its inaugural meeting at ‘The Three Cups Inn’, Colchester to become first Masonic Lodge in Essex in 1753.
Lucas and Lisle is one of twelve Lodges, seven Royal Arch Chapters and a number of higher Orders which now meet at St Giles Masonic and Conference Centre. When the previous centre was demolished to make way for the Southway dual carriageway development, the former church of St Giles, with its chapel named after Royalist officers Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, was offered to Essex Freemasons. When it was consecrated on 11 October 1972, Lucas and Lisle was the first lodge to meet there.
The visit by the Assistant Provincial Grand Master was also an opportunity to acknowledge the contribution made by the Lodge members in achieving Patron status for the Essex Festival 2022 which raised over £5.4 million from among the 8,000 Essex Freemasons. The money was raised for the Masonic Charitable Foundation which has earmarked £7 million pounds over the next few years for charities and good causes in Essex.
The working in the Lodge and the celebrations of the golden and diamond anniversaries were enhanced with a superb five course dinner with wine. At a cost of only £26, the dinner replicated the very first Lodge consecration banquet menu of 1972 and was the perfect recipe for a most enjoyable evening. Graham Dickerson summed up the mood of the evening saying in his speech:
'Tell everyone what you are doing, how you have enjoyed yourself with friends, both old and new, and that you’ve had a great time'.
