FREEMASONS AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY Alphabetical List of ...

Fellows of the Royal Society who are or were Freemasons, listed alphabetically
Initiated, 1795, Shakespear 564 L. No. 131, at Shakespear’s Head, Covent Garden, London, now No. 99. Joined 2
London Ls.: 1796, Somerset House L. No. 2, now Royal Somerset House and Inverness L. No. 4; 1801, GStwds’ L.,
resigning 1814; GStwd 13 May 1801; ProvGM, Essex, 15 Jul 1801, resigning 1824.
Exalted into RA Masonry, 14 Jul 1796, in Chapter of St James No. 1, now No. 2, of which he was made an hon
member 8 Dec 1803, being recorded as a member in a list dated 1812, but never became 1stPrin, though held the
office of 3rdPrin twice, 1798–99 and 1801–02; GSupt, Essex, 15 May 1801, resigning 1823. 565
Wolfson, Sir Isaac, 1st Bt, FRS [20 Jun 1963] (17 Sep 1897–20 Jun 1991), businessman and philanthropist, 2 nd son
(of 3) of Solomon Wolfson, JP (1868–Dec 1941), and his wife Naelia Williamovsky (†Dec 1943), both born in
Russian Poland.
Born at 12 Kidston Street, Glasgow, and educ Queen’s Park Sch, Glasgow, leaving at 14 to join a mail order
company, which became Great Universal Stores; in 1932 acquired a majority shareholding in the company, of which
he became Chmn, 1946–86. Founder Trustee, the Wolfson Foundation, 1955, which aimed to give assistance to major
health projects, education and other fields of research. At Glasgow Univ, the Foundation funded Wolfson Hall and
Wolfson Medical Building; supported the establishment of Wolfson Coll, Oxford, 1966, of which he was a Founder
Fellow, and Wolfson Coll, Cambridge, 1977. The Wolfson Institute was also founded at the London Postgraduate
Medical School.
Pres, Utd Synagogue, 1962, Member: Patternmakers Co; Grand Council, Br Empire Cancer Campaign; Trustee,
Religious Centre, Jerusalem; Hon Treas, Victoria League Commonwealth Friendship. Received: Einstein Award,
USA, 1967; Herbert Lehmann Award, USA, 1968. Freeman, City of Glasgow, 1971.
Owned many companies in Israel, including Paz Pol, paid for the building in Jerusalem, of the Hechal Shlomo –
the Sanctuary of Solomon, named in memory of his father – and also for 50 synagogues in Israel, supporting several
important housing developments in Jerusalem and Acre as well as the Hebrew Univ in Jerusalem and the Weizmann
Institute of Science at Rehovot, eventually retiring there. Many honorary degrees bestowed upon him and was created
a baronet, 19 Feb 1962, but not, as some sources claim, a life peer. At the time of his death, GUS was the 5 th
wealthiest retail undertaking, enjoying profits of more then £4m pa, a stock market value of some £3b and the
Wolfson Foundation had disbursed some £130m, making its founder Britain’s biggest benefactor since Baron
Nuffield.
Married, 14 Feb 1926, at the Central Synagogue, London, Edith Specterman (†1981), dau of Ralph Specterman, a
cinema proprietor, and they had an only son, Sir Leonard Gordon Wolfson (11 Nov 1927–20 May 2010), knighted
1977, created a Life Peer, 13 Jun 1985, as Baron Wolfson, who, when his father died and was bur in Israel in 1991,
succeeded to the title, as 2 nd and last Baronet, for he had no son, but 4 daus.
His nephew, Sir David Wolfson (9 Nov 1935– ), knighted 1984, was created a Life Peer, 1991, as The
Baron Wolfson of Sunningdale; and the latter’s elder son, Simon Adam Wolfson (27 Oct 1967– ), was also
created a Life Peer, 18 Jun 2010, as The Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise.
Initiated 1919, L. Montefiore No. 753, Glasgow.
Woodward, John, MD (Lambeth) [1695], MD (Cantab), FRS [30 Nov 1693], FRCP [5 Mar 1703] (1665–1728), was
a remarkable man – physician, natural historian and antiquary.
Apprenticed when 16 to a London linen draper, where he was discovered by Peter Barwick, Physician-in-Ordinary
to Charles II, taking him into his house and teaching him his profession, and helped him to become Prof of Physick at
Gresham Coll in 1692, apparently before he had any medical qualification. Having had a good classical education he
took a great and early interest in every kind of natural history but particularly about fossils. He started collecting early
on, making his initial discovery in a gravel pit in London in 1688 and his first fossil shell in the Cotswolds on 13 Jan
1690. He had a successful medical practice, producing a paper, Select Cases (1759), published only long after his
death, and numbered amongst his patients Sir Richard Steele (bap.1672–1729), knighted in 1715, an Irish writer and
563 There is some douBt about the year of his death; there seems to be a choice between 1846, c.1847 and 1849. 1846 is derived from MYBHS,
22 & 363, c.1847, from the RS’s list of names on its website, and 1849 from Bro K. S. Buck, History of the Provincial Grand L. of Essex 1776–
1976, in which he recorded the following passage:
. . . Such effort was not forthcoming and Bro. Wix apparently realising that he was unable to infuse life into his Province resigning in 1823 [1824 in
MYBHS, 22] and went to live in Speldhurst, Kent, where he died in 1849 at the age of 81. In the same year, Bro. Rev. A.J. Scott his Deputy having
been appointed to the living of Catterick in Yorkshire, left the County and the Province found itself leaderless.
[Information contained in a message to the compiler dated 7 Jul 2009 from Mr Peter Aitkenhead, Asst Librarian, LMF, for which, with other
details provided about this Fellow before and after that date, he is most grateful].
564 Spelt Shakespeare in Lane, 114, as is the name of the tavern in which the L. met 1773–1805. Nevertheless in E.A. Ebblewhite, The History
of Shakespear L. No. 99 (1905), the following appears: ‘ . . . on the 26 th May, 1773, we temporarily adopted the name “Castle L.”. At that meeting
the L. was informed that the landlord [of the Castle Tavern, Henrietta Street] “was about the decline business”, and the brethren accordingly
resolved to remove to the Shakespear Tavern in Covent Garden Piazza, which they did in readiness for the meeting of the 13 th Oct, 1773; and the
minutes, until the 10 th Nov following, were headed “Shakespear Tavern”. On the 24 th Nov in that year (and not in 1805, as stated in Lane’s
Masonic Records), we 1st adopted our present name of the “Shakespear L.”, which we have consistently used until the present time.’ [Information
contained in the message dated 7 Jul 2009 from Mr Peter Aitkenhead, Asst Librarian, LMF, to the compiler, for which he is most grateful
565 Although the MYBHS, 363, does not state the year of his resignation, it was 1823, and the office was left vacant for a period of fourteen
years until Rowland Gardner Alston, MP, was appointed in 1837, having been appointed ProvGM, Essex, 10 Sep 1836 [MYBHS, 22; message
dated 7 Jul 2009 from Mr Peter Aitkenhead, referred to in the previous note.].
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