My Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I hope that you are all safe and well. Today I wish to start by offering our heartiest congratulations to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, on her official Birthday. Like us I am sure that she will miss seeing the wonderful ceremony of the Trooping of The Colours. This is usually a magnificent parade which many of us enjoy. We all wish her well.
£1,000.00 has been donated to each of the nine Hospices in Hampshire and Isle of Wight for the express purpose of buying Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).
The Hospices to benefit are:
Please find below a link to a message from the Grand Master.
Goodwill Message to Mark Brethren 09062020.pdf
Congratulations to all those awarded Mark Grand Rank in Active roles or First Appointment to Past Rank.
Brethren,
Under normal circumstances today should be one of the highlights of our Masonic year, a visit to Great Queen Street to attend the Annual investiture of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons. Sadly this is not to be and I shall miss the train journey to London, meeting up with so many friends and members of my Province, enjoying their company but more importantly to witness our Brethren invested by the Most Worshipful The Grand Master his Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent, an honour I personally remember on my first appointment.
My Dear Friends and colleagues,
Well here we are into June already. Today many of us would have been attending the Provincial Royal Arch Chapter Annual Meeting, that is not to be but I send my heartiest congratulations to all Companions who now take on their Appointments and Promotions from today. I am disappointed that this event is not taking place because it would have been the first time for a number of years that this meeting did not clash with KTP Grand College.
Dear Sir and Brother
Please find below a link to a letter from the Grand Secretary setting out a provisional blueprint to exit the current period of suspension of masonic activity.
My Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It is with sadness that I have to inform you of the death of W. Bro. David Thomas, who was suddenly taken from us this week. Please have his wife and family in your thoughts and prayers. I have also received messages that David Russell, Alex Roberts and Tony Simon are very unwell, not from Covid 19, but other health problems. There must be others in not too good a health but I am unaware of these. Please also remember these brethren in your thoughts and prayers.
My Dear Friends and colleagues,
I start this week on sad news, our PGM, Rt. W. Bro. George Deacon attended the funeral of W. Br. Myron Peacock on Tuesday. He tells me that there were the invited 10 people in attendance and W. Bro. Mark Denton gave a very commendable Eulogy. It is with sadness that I pay respects to W. Bro. Andrew Wareham who passed to the Grand Lodge above a few days ago. Our thoughts go out to his wife and family and to Andrew’s father, Rt. W. Bro. Brian Wareham and his wife. Many of us knew Andrew through AMD, who was for a while, the Dep. G. Pref. of Southern Counties.
My Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It was so heart-warming to see so many of you celebrating the VE Day celebrations. Although we could not join with our families and friends it was good to see an abundance of pictures on Facebook and the accompanying comments. Pat and I were able to spend about an hour with our children, grand-children and great grand-children on Zoom. We all had high tea together, it was very enjoyable.
My Dear friends,
Tomorrow, 8th May, is, as you are aware, V.E. Day, which to quite a few of us will bring back memories. I recall my mother, on that day, coming out of the house and shouting, “It is all over.” I replied, “what is over, Mum?” She said, “The war.” I had never seen her so happy and she picked me up and swung me around. The whole country was still in turmoil, with bombed dwellings, shops and businesses. Thankfully we were not confined to our own homes and could mingle together, as it had been for the last five years.