The Meeting on 27th February 1975 was the 200th. It was even more special for the writer of this History, as it was the Meeting at which he was elected as a Joining Member of the Lodge. Over the years the cost of dining had increased relentlessly. Reporting on the accounts for 1974, at this Meeting, the Treasurer ‘pointed out that the members were eating their way through the reserves – owing to the hugely increased cost of dining. He therefore proposed that with effect from this evening, the dining fee should be increased to £3.50 for an ordinary meeting and £4.50 for visitors and non-dining members, although subscriptions would remain unchanged.’ It was agreed that the celebrations to mark the Lodge’s 200th Meeting would take place at the following Meeting and the Secretary ‘reported on his correspondence with the Cambridge Masonic Centre and the College. The Masonic Centre was able to rent the Lodge a Lodge Room for the sum of £15 (currently £100) and the College was agreeable to the loan of the Senior Parlour to provide dinner at a cost of approximately £5.50 per head. The Treasurer thought that an appropriate dining fee on this occasion would be £6 for members (currently £52 and £60 for the Centenary Dinner) and £7 for guests. The Treasurer proposed that the Lodge should proceed accordingly and the Secretary seconded, this motion being carried nem. con.’
The accounts regularly appeared in the Minutes at this point and by December 1974, the balance in reserves had risen to £564.59.
The Installation Meeting duly took place in Cambridge on 22nd may, 1975, when the W.M., W.Bro. John Moor had the privilege of initiating his son Robert Moor, before installing his successor, W.Bro. Edward Cooke.
It was at the Meeting on 27th November, 1975 that some of the changes in the funding of dining were raised. The Secretary reported ‘a suggestion from Grand Lodge that the dining element in a Lodge subscription should be ignored and separate accounts for the festive board should be kept, so that those who dined should not be subsidised by non-diners. He also reported that the Connaught Rooms now required a minimum expenditure of £5.40 per head and the Treasurer proposed that the dining fee for members should be increased to £5.00 and for visitors to £5.50. This was agreed nemina contradicentes.’
The Secretary of the Lodge of Trinity Cambridge No. 5765, W. Bro. J. S. Ferguson, attended the Meeting on 27th May, 1976 and ‘invited all the members of Caius Lodge to the ‘Regular’ Emergency Meeting in Trinity College on 26th June, 1976 on a ‘pay for yourself’ basis.’
When the Lodge accounts for 1976 were received at the Installation Meeting on 26th May, 1977, ‘The Treasurer pointed out that there was a regrettable deficit, of £44.96, largely due to the increase in Grand Lodge fees and to greatly increased costs of dining’. Although the Lodge still had a balance in reserves of £542.55, this led to a discussion on the possibility of changing the venue. ‘W. Bro. Moor suggested the Lodge should move to the new Masonic Centre that was proposed in Clerkenwell. W. Bro. Hofton pointed out the advantages of the Connaught Rooms cost wise for small numbers dining and the Treasurer thought that the cost of dining was not unreasonable for present day standards and he was reluctant to accept a proposal that the Lodge might dine more cheaply at an Italian Restaurant, as had been tried with some success by St Mary Magdalen Lodge (which currently dines in the Library at the East India Club). It was agreed that the Treasurer should investigate the possibility of alternative cheaper accommodation.’
The draft copy of the revised By-Laws was also discussed at some length at this Meeting, particularly the financial elements, and a Notice of Motion given for them to be agreed at the next Meeting on 24th November, 1977. Further amendments were discussed at this meeting, particularly the fees for Initiation and Joining, which were considered to be too low. The final version, having been approved by Grand Lodge, was adopted at the Meeting on 23rd February, 1978. Inflation had taken a hold by this time and there was a substantial increase in the subscriptions and fees that had last been changed in November, 1969, as follows:
Initiation Fee – £15.00
Joining and Re-joining Fee – £10.00
Annual Subscription (exclusive of dining) – £ 7.50
The Annual Subscription had previously been 5 guineas, including the cost of dinner at the three regular meetings! It was from this point that ‘the dining and visitors fees shall be based on the per capita cost of the refreshment provided.’
The deaths of two members of the Lodge were announced at the Meeting on 24th November, 1977, with a marked contrast in ages. ‘Bro. E. N. Showell Rogers, who had been initiated on 22nd November, 1918, missed the Diamond Jubilee of his Initiation by 8 days and w.Bro. J Howard, who had been initiated as an undergraduate, had died at the early age of 42 years.’
The accounts for 1977 were presented at the Meeting on 23rd February, 1978. They showed a deficit of £70.20 but this was accounted for by the purchase of Past Masters jewels for the next six years, at a cost of £135.00 and a shortfall in dining fees over the cost of the dinners of £92.62.
After the Installation Meeting had been held in Cambridge in May 1978, it was decided that this meeting should be held in Cambridge every year and, with only one exception, this has happened every year since.
Caius Lodge had a slightly quieter time in the decade leading up to its 70th Anniversary and the total membership declined, although the active members kept the Lodge in a healthy state. During these ten years, there were only 3 Joining Members and 8 Initiations, with 7 Second Degree ceremonies and 6 Third Degrees. However, the 11 new members were outnumbered by 9 resignations and 9 deaths. The total number of visitors over the ten years was 207, usually boosted by the Installation Meetings which were held in Cambridge. This still maintained an average of 7 visitors per meeting, which had been the norm in the late fifties and sixties.
The 1980s
It was at the Meeting on 26th November, 1981 that W.bro. J. H. Moir resigned as Secretary due to ill health. He had been Secretary for fifteen years. The following meeting, on 25th February, 1982, the question of fees and subscriptions came up again. Considering that they had only been increased four years before the level of increase was particularly significant. The new levels were as follows:
Initiation Fee – £40.00 up from £15.00
Joining and Re-joining Fee – £30.00 up from £10.00
Annual Subscription (exclusive of dining) – £12.50 up from £ 7.50
The principal of Country Membership was introduced again, ‘for any member who, for reasons acceptable to the Lodge, is not in a position regularly to attend the Lodge may, on written application to the Secretary, be considered a Country Member and shall pay a reduced subscription of such a sum as the Lodge shall determine.’ Requests were then received from four members of the Lodge to go on the Country List.
However, since the Annual Subscription had been separated from dining fees, there had not really been a need for a Country Membership and it appeared that the option for Country Membership had not been taken up.
Caius Lodge has enjoyed a fairly regular intake of Candidates throughout its history. There was the odd exception when there was a gap of a couple of years and the Second World War and the after years, when there were only two Initiations between February 1939 and November 1949. Another period when there was a dearth of Candidates was in the early 1980s. There had been no Initiation between February 1979 and the Meeting on 24th February 1983 when ‘the Matter of falling membership was discussed at length. It was decided that the Treasurer, W.bro. Edgar Harborne, would send out letters to a number of Caians informing them of the existence of the Lodge. Suggestions that the membership should be opened to any person who had attended Cambridge University or that the sons of Lodge members should be eligible to join, or that membership should be totally open, were deferred pending the results of the letter.’
Not much happened in the short term. But by the Meeting on 24th November, 1983,’the Treasurer reported on the progress of a letter to be sent to potential Caian Candidates. This was ready to be approved by the Grand Lodge and the College. It was agreed that the letter should be sent out, subject to these approvals.’ By the Meeting on 23rd February, 1984, ‘the Treasurer reported that the College had agreed to provide lists of College members with a view to an approach being made to some by letter and had agreed to assist in the distribution of such a letter. However, the Grand Secretary had advised that such a letter was not to be recommended and that approaches should be made in person.’
On the other hand, the College had also agreed to the Secretary writing a report about the Lodge in the Caian, the ‘Annual Record of the College’ which includes reports on the College’s Clubs and Societies in addition to the elections to Fellowships and Scholarships for the ensuing year. In response to this report in the previous edition of the Caian, ‘the Secretary was able to report that he had had enquiries from two Caians who were already Freemasons and one from a potential Initiate. These enquiries were being followed up.’
It was at the Meeting in February, 1984 that the suggestion was first made to change the regular meeting day from Thursday to Friday. This was considered a more practical day, as many members had a long way to travel to London and travelling back on a Saturday was thought better than a weekday which meant taking two days off work. Having had the Installation Meeting in Cambridge for the last six years, it was also suggested that this should be a permanent arrangement and this was agreed.
Sir Tatton Brinton’s death was announced at the Installation Meeting on 24th May, 1984. He had been initiated into the Lodge in February 1959, at the age of 43. It was the day after this meeting in May 1984 that the first Ladies Luncheon took place in the Senior Parlour in College. As the Lodge was not large enough, especially with its members scattered over the country, it was not practical to hold a Ladies Night and the Ladies Luncheon proved a very popular alternative. The ladies were very pleased to have a visit to Cambridge, to have lunch in College and to meet the other members of the Lodge and their wives, partners and non-Masonic guests. In fact, they were so enthusiastic that the Ladies Luncheon has taken place almost every year since.
At the Meeting on 1st November, 1985, the death was announced of W.Bro. Ian Morris. He had been a Joining Member of the Lodge in 1935, a regular visitor for some years before that, Master for two years from 1940 to 1942 and Director of Ceremonies for nine years to 1964. It was customary, at every meeting, to read the Minutes from 50 years previously and Bro. Morris had attended that meeting.
At the Meeting on 27th February, 1986, the Annual Subscription was raised again, to £17.50, with the Country Members Annual Subscription being raised to £10.00.
The death of W.Bro. Jim Hofton was announced at the Meeting on 26th February, 1987. He had become a Joining Member of the Lodge in 1959, at the age of 52 and had been Director of Ceremonies for eighteen years until his death, with a gap of four years in the early 1970s when he went through the Chair.
The difficulty of recruiting Initiates continued throughout the 1980s. The Initiation in February 1985 was the first for six years and it was two years after that before there was another one. Nevertheless, the Lodge had continued an active existence with lectures and demonstrations of Degrees and the members who attended regularly derived great enjoyment, both from the meetings and the festive boards.
Partly as a result of the problems with the recruitment of new members, the Lodge agreed, at the Meeting on 26th February, 1987 ‘that the fathers and sons of members should be accepted as members.’ The first such non-Caian member was W.Bro. Roy Marshall who was a Provincial Grand Organist in Warwickshire and had visited the Lodge on a number of occasions. He had given a lecture on ‘Mozart – Musician and Mason’ in February 1984, which was well received. He had also been invited to initiate his son, Keith Marshall, in February 1985. Once he had been elected he was, not surprisingly, immediately invested as Organist. Having served a year as Senior Warden, W.Bro. Marshall was the first non-Caian to be installed as Master at the Meeting in Cambridge on 1st June, 1990.
An important change in the dining arrangements occurred after the Meeting on 4th November, 1988 when the festive board moved to the United Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall Mall. The members of the Lodge agreed unanimously that the ambience and the quality of the dinner was a marked improvement on the Connaught Rooms and the Lodge has dined at the Club, after its London Meetings, ever since.
The reduction in the number of new members is perhaps the main feature of Caius Lodge in the decade of the 1980s leading up to it 80th Anniversary, in June 1989. In total, there were 7 Joining Members and only 4 Initiations, with 5 Second Degree and 4 Third Degree ceremonies. There had also been only 5 resignations in the ten years but 8 deaths. Even so, there was only a net loss in membership of two. The total number of visitors during the decade had been 142, a slight reduction in the average per meeting over the previous two decades, to just under 5 visitors per meeting.
It was a reflection of the level of inflation in the late 1980s that at the Meeting on 3rd November, 1989 that the fees were raised again, only three years after the last increase. The Initiation Fee was increased by £10 to £50, an 25 per cent increase and the Joining Fee by £10 to £40, an increase of 33 per cent. However, the Annual Subscription was not increased. At the same time Country Membership was abolished, on the grounds that, with the separation of the Subscription and the Dining Fee many years before, it was not relevant, given that the Annual Dues paid to Grand Lodge were the same for all members.
The 1990s
The Meeting on 1st November, 1991 was a special occasion, as it was the 250th Meeting, to which 26 visitors were invited. The Secretary, W. Bro. Bob Watkin, read a short history of the Lodge. The Minutes record that ‘the Lodge was then called off and the brethren enjoyed a musical interlude presented by W. Bro. Ashby, on the organ, and as vocalists w. Bros. Jennings, Marshall and Burton. The Lodge was called on and the W. M. asked Bro. Secretary to record the pleasure of the brethren. Then the Provincial Grand Master for Cambridgeshire, R. W. Bro. Canon H. R. Barker delivered a speech on ‘the relationship between the University Lodges and the Province of Cambridgeshire’. At the festive board on this occasion, there were sung graces before and after dinner.
At the Meeting on 7th February, 1992, W. Bro. Peter Ford was elected as an Honorary Member. He had been elected as a Joining Member of the Lodge in 1936, having matriculated at Gonville and Caius College in 1931 and been initiated in Old Wrekinian Lodge No. 5481. So he had already been a member of the Lodge for 56 years. He had been Master in 1944 and had served as Secretary for fourteen years from 1946.
The problem with the recruitment of new members that had occurred in the 1980s was also evident in the early years of the 1990s. by 1992, it had been four years since there had been an Initiation and there had also been only one Joining Member in that time. Without new members progressing up the ladder to the Chair, it was necessary for the Past Masters to ‘re-cycle’ themselves and it was for this reason that W.Bro. Peter Jennings, the writer, was installed as Master for the third time, at the Meeting in Cambridge on 29th May, 1992. He had been
Master previously in 1981 and 1984. It was in his position as Master that he had represented the Lodge at the 275th Anniversary Meeting of Grand Lodge at Earls Court. It is interesting to note that the Medical Team at this Meeting had been led by the I.P.M., W.Bro. Barry Brough and that two other members of the Lodge had also been in the team, W.Bro. Jack Eames and W.Bro. Peter Bates.
It was at the Meeting in November, 1992, that the Secretary, W.Bro. Bob Watkin, proposed that Caius Lodge should be the sponsoring Lodge of the new Oxford and Cambridge Lodges’ Council, which was approved by the Brethren. This led to W.Bro. Watkin becoming the first Chairman of the Council.
The first Festival of the Oxford and Cambridge Lodges’ Council was hosted by Caius Lodge on 7th August, 1993. There was an Emergency Meeting of the Lodge in the Masonic Hall in Bateman Street. This was attended by the Provincial Grand Master for Cambridgeshire, R.W.Bro. Canon H. R. Barker, and the Deputy Provincial Grand Master for Oxfordshire, V.W.Bro. J Cockin, and 28 other visitors. The Worshipful Master, W.Bro. Edgar Harborne, gave a brief history of each of the member Lodges of the Council. Meanwhile, the wives and non-Masonic guests were taken on a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum. The Festival Luncheon then took place in Gonville and Caius College. After the Meeting, the members of the Lodge, together with all their guests were taken by coach to Fordham Parish Church for the Festival Service which was conducted by the Provincial Grand Master.
The death of the Tyler, W.Bro. Frank Wilson, was announced at the Meeting on 4th November, 1994. He had been continuously elected Tyler of the Lodge for the previous 21 years. His passing was received with much regret by the brethren of the Lodge. As well as looking after all the Candidates with sensitivity and warmth, he had also had a cheery personality which was greatly respected.
After the Meeting on 3rd February, 1995, had been opened and the Minutes read, it was called off, so that the brethren could visit the Old Tauntonian Lodge No. 5735, where they listened to an address by Captain P. J. Bootherstone, RN, on the New Masonic Samaritan Fund, of which he was the Secretary. There was also a Passing. This was a reciprocal arrangement for the visit made by the Old Tauntonian Lodge to a Caius Lodge Meeting on 4th February, 1994 when W.Bro. Roger Jago, who was a Caian, was the Worshipful Master. It was just a coincidence that both Lodges met on the same day at Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street.
It was also at this meeting that it was agreed to increase the Annual Subscription from £17.50 to £40.00! The Meeting on 26th May, 1995 in Cambridge was a particularly interesting one. The Master Elect was Bro. Niyazi Adali, who was Turkish. His personal guests included the Grand Master of Turkey, R.W.Bro. Can Arpaç, the Deputy Grand Master, Tunc Turmikan, and four other Turkish Freemasons. They were saluted appropriately. On the Third Rising, the Grand Master gave an address to W.Bro. Adali. He also presented to Caius Lodge a plate bearing the arms of the Turkish Grand Lodge. It was a memorable occasion for all those present, especially the newly installed Master of Caius Lodge!
The issue of the shortage of Candidates was raised again at the Meeting on 3rd November, 1995 when ‘a Recruitment Sub-Committee was formed to discuss how this might be resolved, which would report back to the Lodge at the next Meeting’. They did so but without finding the answer to the problem.
The death of W.Bro. J. P. Moor was announced at the Meeting on 1st November, 1996. He had been a member of the Lodge for 38 years and had been Master in 1963 and 1974.
The Recruitment Sub-Committee continued in existence and at the Meeting on 7th February, 1997, two possible approaches were suggested. The first was a proposal to donate a bursary to the College, from the Lodge’s Relief Chest, to fund a History Prize of Books. W.Bro. Harborne had spoken to the Master of the College, Neil McKendrick, whose subject was History and who, therefore, was keen on the idea. As the College required a bursary of 24 times the value of the annual prize, it was suggested that a donation of £2,400 would provide a prize of £100. The proposal was approved by the brethren, with the recommendation that the donation should be made at the Ladies Luncheon the day after the Installation Meeting in May that year.
The second proposal to encourage recruitment was to hold a social event in the College at the time of the Installation Meeting, to which members of the College would be invited, in order to raise the profile of the Lodge. In the event, neither proposal took place that year but the idea of making a charitable donation to the College was to be pursued and discussions with the Master continued. As a Bursary could not be in the name of the Lodge, it was decided that it should be in the name of Sir Harold Gillies, a Caian renowned for the early development of plastic surgery and a member of the Lodge from 1912 to 1949 and Master in 1925. The Lodge finally voted and approved donating a Bursary to the College to fund a prize at the Meeting on 22nd May, 1998.
The Visiting Grand Officer Scheme was introduced to Caius Lodge by its first V.G.O, w.Bro. Barry Govey, at the Meeting on 6th February, 1998.
The decade in the 1990s leading up to the 90th Anniversary of the Consecration of the Lodge was much the same as the previous decade. It had not proved easy to recruit new members and there had been 5 Joining Members and only 4 Initiates, with 5 Second Degree and 6 Third Degree ceremonies. As their were 8 resignations and 6 deaths, the number of members was in a small decline, the total membership being 23. However, there continued to be regular visitors, a total of 217 over the decade, an average of just over 7 per meeting which was up on the previous decade. The number of visitors was always boosted by the Installation Meeting in Cambridge, followed by the festive board in College.
A significant change in the permanent Officers occurred at the Meeting on 5th November, 1999, after the Secretary, W.Bro. Peter Topping had resigned shortly after being invested, due to pressures of work. W.Bro. Peter Jennings was appointed and invested in his stead, having been the Director of Ceremonies for 11 out of the previous 13 years, the exceptional years being when he became Master again. He has continued in the office of Secretary up to the present day and it is in this capacity, and holding all the Minute Books back to the Consecration of the Lodge, that he is the writer of this History of the Lodge.
The Years After the Millennium
W.Bro. Bob Watkin was installed as Master again at the Meeting on 2nd June, 2000. This was particularly special, as it was the 50th Anniversary of his Initiation. In addition, W.Bro. Bob Watkin was still the Chairman of the Oxford and Cambridge Lodges’ Council and it was the turn of Caius Lodge to host the Council’s Festival again that year.
At the Installation Meeting, the Lodge was honoured by the presence of M.W.Bro. Eduardo Carbonell, the Deputy Grand Master of Spain, and four members of St George’s Lodge No. 38, the Grand Lodge of Spain. They were the guests of Bro. Miguel Hernandez-Bronchud, the Senior Deacon, who was himself Spanish and lived in Barcelona. There were apologies for absence from three distinguished Past Masters – W.Bro. Guy Hepburn, who had been initiated at the Installation Meeting exactly 50 years previously, W.Bro. Michael Walford, who had been initiated in November 1949 and W.Bro. Peter Ford, who had been a Joining Member of the Lodge in 1936, 64 years previously!
In the process of planning for the Festival on 28th June, 2000, a request was made to the Dean of the College to include a Festival Service in the College Chapel. It is fair to say that there was a high degree of reluctance from the Dean to accede to this request. He said that he would have to consult the Chapel Committee. The author of this History, W.Bro. Peter Jennings, who was Secretary at the time, wrote a letter justifying why it was reasonable to allow the College Masonic Lodge to hold such a Service. Although it is not known exactly what prompted the Committee and the Dean to give his permission, the fact that a copy of the Order of Service from a Service for Caius Lodge on 30th October, 1931 (see Figure 7) was included with the Secretary’s letter, is thought to have provided a sufficient precedent for the approval to be given.
The Emergency Meeting during the 2000 Festival of the Oxford and Cambridge Lodges’ Council included an Open Presentation in the main Temple in the Masonic Hall in Cambridge. This was at a time when Freemasonry was making an effort to show itself to be much more open than it had previously. ‘The Presentation was given by members of Caius Lodge, and some regular guests, about the running of a Lodge Meeting and it was given to members of the Oxford and Cambridge Lodges and Chapters, their wives and their Masonic and non-Masonic guests.’
The Emergency Meeting was followed by the Festival Luncheon in Gonville and Caius College at which the donation to the College to establish a Bursary was finally made. A cheque for £10,000 to establish the Sir Harold Gillies Bursary, for a student in need each year, was given to the Master of the College, Neil McKendrick, who was the Guest of Honour. In thanking the Lodge for this magnificent donation, the Master commented that ‘it was the first time that he had been invited to dine at his own High Table’. After the Luncheon, there was a Festival Service in the College Chapel, followed by tours of the new College Library and the new Fellows’ Dining Room.
At the Meeting on 3rd November, 2000, the Lodge was pleased to welcome, as a Joining Member, R.W.Bro. Ian D Bruce, the Provincial Grand Master of Norfolk at that time. He had been introduced by W.Bro. Edgar Harborne, a long-standing member of the Lodge. They had known each other since College days when Ian Bruce had been the cox in the College first boat in 1954 in which Edgar Harborne had rowed and they had won their oars, for the first time since 1904.
At the Meeting on 2nd November 2001, the brothers Michael and John walford were each presented with a Certificate to mark 50 years in Freemasonry by w.Bro. Edgar Harborne, who had known them both for over 30 years.
It was at the Meeting on 1st February, 2002, that the first major changes to the structure of London Management were announced ‘in preparation for London becoming a legal Masonic entity in its own right, as the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London, a name still to be confirmed.
The number of Visiting Grand Officer Groups would be reduced from 22 to 10. Caius Lodge had become part of the Sussex Group’.
After the difficulties of recruiting new members in the 1980s and 1990s, the situation changed dramatically from the beginning of 2000. There were three Joining Members and four Initiates in the first two years of the new Century, three of the Initiations being on consecutive meetings, starting with the Installation Meeting on 1st June, 2001. This caused a problem which the Lodge had not experienced for 50 years – how to fit in all the resulting ceremonies! The situation had previously occurred when in the ten meetings between November 1949 and February 1953, there had been no less than seven Initiations. The solution to the current, but very welcome, problem was an Emergency Meeting on 19th April, 2001, in order to conduct a Third Degree ceremony.
At the Meeting on 7th June, 2002, Bro. Miguel Hernandez-Bronchud was installed as Master. Once again the Lodge was honoured by the presence of the Grand Master of Spain, on this occasion it was M.w.Bro. Josep Corominas, of the Llibertet Lodge No. 105 in the Spanish Constitution. He was saluted with eleven, in Spanish, by w.Bro. Peter Jennings.
It was at this Meeting that the Annual Subscription was increased from £40 to £60 but the Initiation Fee remained at £50 and the Joining Fee at £40. The date when the Annual Subscription was due was also brought forward from 1st May to 1st January.
By the Meeting on 1st November, 2002, the proposals for the establishment of the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London and the Metropolitan Grand Chapter of London had been finalised and they were set out in detail in a letter from the Chairman of London Management, W.Bro. Rex Thorne. A wide process of consultation was underway which would be completed by December 2002. Grand Lodge approved the proposals in March 2003 and the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London was inaugurated on 1st October, 2003 in the Royal Albert Hall at which the Lodge was represented by the W.M., W.Bro. Jack Eames, and the Secretary, W.Bro. Peter Jennings who also sang in the choir.
The Secretary, had updated the By-Laws of the Lodge, which had remained unaltered since 1982. After presenting draft versions and making certain amendments, they were finally approved by Grand Lodge and adopted at the Meeting on 7th February, 2003.
The death of W.Bro. Michael Burton was announced at the Meeting on 30th May, 2003. As it was recorded in the Minutes, ‘W.Bro. Burton had become a Joining Member of the Lodge in 1960 and so he had been a member for 43 years. He was installed as Master in May 1968 and was Master for a second time in May 1984. He had been Chaplain for many years and had always been kind, gentle, courteous and he was a great supporter of the Lodge’.
W.Bro. David Alexander, PGStdB, was elected as an Honorary Member of the Lodge at the Meeting on 7th November, 2003. To say that he had been a regular visitor for many years was an understatement, as he had attended 40 out of the 42 Regular Meetings, since June 1989! The W.M., W.Bro. Jack Eames, said that ‘W.Bro. Alexander had attended more regularly than most of the members and he had taken on an acting office at most of these meetings. The Lodge wished to recognise this long and dedicated service by making W.Bro. Alexander an Honorary Member. The ballot was in favour of the Candidate. The W.M. congratulated him and presented him with a College tie.’
At the Installation Meeting on 4th June, 2004, W.Bro. Bob Watkin announced that he was stepping down as the Lodge’s Representative on the Oxford and Cambridge Lodges’ Council, of which he had been the Chairman since its inauguration in 1993. W.Bro. Peter Jennings was elected as the Lodge’s Representative in his stead. The Festival that year was on 19th June. It was hosted by the Isaac Newton University Lodge, in Jesus College, at which W.Bro. Edgar Harborne was the Master and Chairman of the Festival. At the Council Meeting, prior to the Festival, W.Bro. Jennings was elected by the Council as its Chairman, in succession to W.Bro. Watkin.
During the course of his first year as Treasurer, W.Bro. Mike Perry had re-formatted the presentation of the Accounts, chased up a number of overdue subscriptions and dining fees but he had also identified that there needed to be an increase in the Annual Subscription if the Lodge was to continue to cover its costs. It was therefore approved by the brethren at the Meeting on 4th June, 2004 that the subscription and fees should be increased as follows:
Annual Subscription – £85
Initiation Fee – £85
Joining Fee – £40 (Unchanged)
Although membership of Caius Lodge is only open to members of Gonville and Caius College, apart from having agreed to let direct relatives of Caians become members of the Lodge, it is open to the Lodge to make an exception, if it so chooses. The brethren made such a decision at the Meeting on 4th November, 2005 when W.Bro. David Alexander, who had continued to attend every meeting since he was elected an Honorary Member in November 2003, was elected as a full Joining Member and he thanked the brethren sincerely for the honour bestowed upon him. The timing was deliberate for, at the following Meeting on 3rd February, 2006 W.Bro. Alexander was duly elected as Master for the ensuing year, the only office in which he had not been an Acting Officer during all the years that he had been a visitor to the Lodge.
The Meeting on 2nd February, 2007 saw the election of two Joining Members and an Initiate. However, the interesting feature was that one of the Joining Members was Bro. Craig Titmus, a Caian who had been initiated into Isaac Newton University Lodge No. 859. The other Joining Member was W.Bro. Colin Titmus, his father, who was not a Caian. Bro. Craig Titmus’s younger brother, Aaron Titmus, who was not a Caian either was then initiated. The fact that direct relatives of Caian could be accepted as full members of Caius Lodge had been used to great effect!
At the Installation Meeting in Cambridge on 1st June, 2007, the death was announced of W.Bro. Peter Ford, PJGD. He had become a Joining Member of the Lodge in 1936 and so he had been a member for 71 years. He had been Master in 1944 and Secretary from 1946 to 1960.
This Installation Meeting was slightly different to usual, in that there were 23 guests, 11 of whom were the personal guests of the Master Elect, W.Bro. Alan Whiteley. As a result, it was not possible to accommodate all those attending the Meeting for the festive board which was always held in the Senior Parlour. Consequently, the Secretary had had to request the special permission of the President of the College, Professor Yao Liang, for the Lodge to hold the dinner in the Fellows’ Dining Room. Permission was duly given and the brethren enjoyed an excellent festive board in magnificent surroundings.
The new structure for the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London had been approved by Grand Lodge at its Quarterly Communication in March 2007. There were to be three Assistant Grand Masters, each responsible for 500 London Lodges and two Assistant Grand Masters, each responsible for 300 London Chapters. Each MetAGM would have five Grand Inspectors and they in turn would each have 10 Senior Visiting Officers, who would have 4 or 5 Visiting Officers. In this way, it was hoped that there would be a strong connection between individual Lodges and the Metropolitan Grand Lodge. The SVO and VO for Caius Lodge, W.Bro. Douglas Neill, made his first visit at the Meeting on 2nd November, 2007.
There was an unusual occurrence at the Meeting on 1st February, 2008, when, at the end of the Meeting, Bro. Edward Cartwright, who had just been initiated, proposed another Candidate for Initiation. Mr James Hurley was duly elected and initiated at the Installation Meeting on 27th June, 2008.
It was at this Meeting that the death was announced of W.Bro. John Walford. The eulogy was given by his older brother, W.Bro. Michael Walford. John Walford had been initiated into Caius Lodge in February 1951 and had been a member for 57 years; he was installed as Master in May 1960 and he had been the Treasurer from 1966 to 1979.
The Installation Meeting was much later in June 2008 than usual. This was because it was the turn of Caius Lodge, once again, to host the Festival of the Oxford and Cambridge Lodges’ Council and the College could only accommodate the two events on Friday 27th June and Saturday 28th June.
Building on the success of the Open Presentation when Caius Lodge had hosted the Festival in 2000, another Open Meeting was arranged in the Main Temple in the Masonic Hall in Cambridge, for wives, partners and non-Masonic guests. On this occasion, presentations were made on Freemasonry in the European countries in which members of Caius Lodge lived – W.Bro. Miguel Hernandez-Bronchud spoke about Freemasonry in Spain, W.Bro. Edgar Harborne, in France, W.Bro. Brian Drewitt, in Germany and, as Scotland has a separate Constitution and Grand Lodge, W.Bro. Michael Perry explained the differences north of the border. Professor Yao Liang, the President of Gonville and Caius College, was the Guest of Honour at the Festival Luncheon in June 2008. Caius Lodge, therefore, is indeed fortunate to have a good and continuing relationship with its members’ alma mater. The Luncheon was followed by the Festival Service in the College Chapel, led by the Chapel Choir and then a piano recital in the Bateman Auditorium. The day concluded with Tea in Gonville Court.
In the two years leading up the Centenary of Caius Lodge, the recruitment of new members took a positive, and encouraging, leap
forward. Following the influx of the Titmus family in February 2007, V.W.Bro. Timothy Duff, PGSwd, a Past Assistant Grand Master in Northumberland, was a Joining Member at the Meeting on 1st February, 2008 and he conducted the Festival Service in June 2008. In addition, there were Initiation ceremonies at four consecutive meetings from February 2008 to February 2009. This left the welcome problem of how to fit in the subsequent ceremonies, with two Degrees being worked at each meeting. A further Joining Member will be elected and welcomed into the Lodge at the Centenary Meeting on 3rd July, 2009, at which the Guest of Honour will be the Metropolitan Grand Master, R.w.bro. Russell Race, who was only invested at the Annual Meeting of the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London in February, 2009.
The conclusion to the saga of subscriptions and fees is that, from 1st January, 2010, the Annual Subscription will go up to £100 and it will be the same for the Initiation Fee. However, Grand Lodge has now agreed that the Annual Dues for brethren under 25 is reduced by 50 per cent.
In the decade leading up to its Centenary, Caius Lodge has thrived. It has had 9 Joining Members and 10 Initiates, with 7 second Degree and 7 Third Degree ceremonies and several of each still to take place in the coming Meetings. The total membership now stands at 31, a significant increase on the 23 members in 1999. The total number of visitors over the previous ten years was 180, an average of 6 per meeting, as always, boosted by the enthusiasm of going to Cambridge for the Installation Meeting.
Since Caius Lodge was consecrated, it has had 104 Joining Members and, appropriately for its Centenary, exactly 100 Initiates, with a total of 1,673 visitors.
Conclusions
Caius Lodge now has a ‘Continuous Record of Existence’ for one hundred years. Given that it has only been able to recruit its members from Gonville and Caius College, it is remarkable that it has achieved this milestone. Like every other Lodge, it has had its times of strength and other times when it was more of a struggle.
Caius Lodge has numbered many distinguished Freemasons and members who have had distinguished careers in their professional life. It has also benefitted from a considerable number of members whose membership has lasted over thirty, forty and even fifty years.
Inevitably, Caius Lodge has never been a large Lodge but its success has been founded on members who have been committed to Freemasonry and who wanted to combine this with a connection to their College. The Lodge is fortunate indeed to have a good relationship with the present Master of the College, Sir Christopher Hum and the the College President, Professor Yao Liang. Perhaps above all, the members of Caius Lodge have always enjoyed a common interest and each other’s company, particularly at the festive board, whether it was at an Installation Dinner in College or, for the last twenty years, a Dinner at the Oxford and Cambridge Club. Visitors have always commented that Caius Lodge is friendly, warm and welcoming, where its Freemasons have fun.
It has been a privilege and a pleasure for me to read through the Minutes of every Meeting of Caius Lodge since it was consecreated on 8th June, 1909, as well as looking through the archives to produce the illustrations. If you have reached this page, I hope that you have enjoyed reading the History of Caius Lodge as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Peter Jennings – Caius Lodge
Postscript
W. Bro. Michael Walford received his 60 year Certificate in November 2009. He sadly died in 2015. W.Bro. Michael Walford is the father of Thomas and Julian Walford who joined the lodge in 2010.
Finally W. Bro. Julian Walford, became master in 2018 as the 109th Master and was followed by W. Bro Dr Thomas Walford in 2019 at 110th. They were the grandchildren of W. Bro. H. H. Walford and sons of W. Bro Michael Walford.
Caius Masonic Lodge 3355 