Tales of the Unexpected at Beaudesert Lodge No 1087

Last week, Ian Church, Assistant Provincial Secretary, presented a tale, with an unexpected ending, to the Beaudesert Lodge Members & Visitors when he recounted the story of John Henry Talbott Chick, a past Master of the Lodge.

In 1912 John, a bank manager, was initiated into Beaudesert Lodge, starting his journey through the Lodge offices to the Master’s Chair. He had been blessed with three sons and a daughter and at the outbreak of WWI the sons answered the country’s call and went to war. Two joined the navy and the other, Lionel, was conscripted into the infantry. Lionel was wounded and later reported missing, ending up a prisoner of war in 1918.  Thankfully, all three survived the war.

In commemoration of the Freemasons killed and in gratitude to those who returned from the Great War the Masonic Million Memorial Fund was established and run through the 1920’s until enough funds were raised to build the Peace Memorial which was opened in Great Queen Street in 1933. In recognition of contributions made, personalised Hall-Stone Jewels were presented to Provinces, District, Lodges and Individuals accordingly.

In the late 1920’s, on retiring to Leigh-on-Sea, Bro John resigned from Freemasonry but before he left, he made a personal donation to the Masonic Million Memorial Fund.

The unexpected ending to this story is that Ian had found Bro John’s Hall Stone Jewel at a medal fair. It was named and numbered to Beaudesert Lodge and displayed with was Lionel’s WW1 medals and Ian had bought them along for all to view, along with other artefacts from the Masonic Million Memorial Fund, including a beautiful array of Hall Stone jewels kindly lent by Paul Gardener of Britalia Garibaldi Lodge.