Old Eastbournian Lodge No. 4946
I am writing this as Christmas approaches, the time we look back and remember how the Lodge has been faring over the past twelve months, but it is also a time when we remember those who are no longer with us. It is only a few days since so many of the wider College com- munity gathered together at St Saviour’s Church to pay our last respects to that giant among former teachers, Forbes Wastie, and to celebrate his long associ- ation and outstanding service to the College. The Old Eastbour- nian Lodge is one of the many fortunate groups associated with the school that particularly benefitted from Forbes’s direct involvement. He had been one of our key members for over 30 years, serving as our Mil - lennium Master in 2000, since when the Lodge has adopted Forbes’s Millennium Tie as part of our usual dress. During those years he had introduced many new members to the Lodge and his contribution in that respect is unlikely ever to be repeated. Many Lodge members were at the service, some of whom had travelled great distances to be with us. He will be sadly missed. As well as joining the Lodge out of his huge support for anything related to the OE network, Forbes was also very pleased to be associated with the amazing charitable side of the movement. Apart from our well-known social side, we also manage to fund huge sums of money for charity each year, all of it being raised by the indi- vidual lodges out of their own pockets. As a movement we are second only to the National Lottery in our annual donations to charity, giving away some £50m a year to a multitude of different causes. As well as supporting large numbers of small local charities we are one of the first responders to international disaster relief, we give tremendous support to medical research, to mental health, the hospice movement Nick Clive-Matthews writes:
and are great supporters of Air Ambulances across the country. The London Lodges alone have made a donation of £3m towards the cost of the two new London air ambulances, each of which has the Masonic logo and the London Freemasons name displayed prominently on each side. The OE Lodge continues to support all this charitable giving as best we can, including supporting the College Bursa- ries Fund.
a dozen different lodges, who all enjoyed an excellent dinner at the Eastbourne Masonic Centre after the meeting. The highlight of the year for the OE members of the Lodge was the October meeting, when we welcomed a new Initi- ate in Graham Lee (Gonville 1985–90). It is always an impor - tant moment for any lodge to welcome a new member, but especially so for the OE Lodge when the new recruit is himself an OE. As we became an ‘open lodge’ in 1997, when we moved our meetings from London down to Eastbourne under the guidance of the late John W E Howlett (Wargrave 1946–50), many of the members are no longer directly linked to the College, but we always try and maintain a balance. John‘s son John, Jr. (Blackwater 1971–74) served as Master for three years from 2020–22, when he kept up our spirits during the Covid years. Being an open lodge, we are no longer restricted to OEs and staff but also welcome parents, grandparents or friends as members, but we are keen to maintain our direct link to the College and are always delighted to welcome former pupils and anyone directly involved with the school. We meet at the Eastbourne Masonic Centre on a Friday evening four times a year and always have dinner after the meeting, which is a great way to get to know each other and keep up with the latest College news. Rob Wicks, Dermot Bam- bridge (Reeves 1962–65), Peter Gates, JP (Reeves 1962–67) and Nick Clive-Matthews (Pennell 1962–66), were all recruited to assist in Graham’s initiation and Nick was particularly delighted to be invited to guide him Some of Graham’s welcoming party
through the ceremony as the stand-in Junior Deacon, a role he had first performed over 30 years ago. We all hope that Graham will get as much fun out of his Freemasonry as the senior members have over the years. Our next big event will be in January, when our current Master, Ed Board, will be installing his successor, Joey Williamson-Persh, the grand- son of Philip Kavanagh (Reeves 1952–55) and brother of Jasmine (Blackwater 2010–12). There will be plenty of work for the new Master next year, but he would still be delighted to welcome any new prospec- tive members. If you are still not sure about Freemasonry, then just have a look at the United Grand Lodge of England website www.ugle.org.uk and the Sussex Provincial website https://sussexmasons.org.uk. Both are packed with informa- tion and we are now particularly looking to recruit not just young men, as there are also two Grand Lodges specifically cater - ing for women. As a result of our nationwide universities scheme, we now accept anyone over the age of 18. If you think you might like to learn a little more or are already a Mason but would like to join a local lodge, then Nick Clive-Matthews – nickc_m@ yahoo.co.uk – will be more than happy to have a chat or put you in touch with a lodge meeting in your area.
John Bones (Wargrave 1952–55) and Graham Lee On a happier note, the Lodge has had another busy year under the leadership of our current Master, Ed Board, a local solici - tor and son of Andrew, who was in the Chair in 2019. He was installed in January by Dr
Rob Wicks and John Thornley (Lodge Organist)
Rob Wicks (Powell 1974–79), who is continuing as the Lodge Mentor, another important role. Some 40 Masons gathered together for the evening, among them five visiting Masters of other lodges, in particular the Master of the Old Radleian Lodge accompanied by his Lodge Secretary, both of whom were invited to assist in the cer- emony. Old Brightonians were represented by a Past Master who was also part of the visit- ing Sussex Provincial team and altogether we had guests from
Peter Gates, Nick Clive-Matthews and Dermot Bambridge
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