NEWSLETTER 36 Repro - Masonic Province of Yorkshire, West Riding

NEWSLETTER 36 Repro 11/5/07 11:45 AM Page 40
NIGHT OF NOSTALGIA
FOR SCOTTISH MASON
THERE was a mixture of Scottish and English Freemasonry
during a special night of nostalgia at Thornhill Lodge No
1514 earlier this year.
For W Bro Allan McKenzie McNeill was there to
celebrate 50 years in the Craft – a Masonic career, which
began in May 1957 in Clydebank.
W Bro Allan joined Thornhill seven years later when he
came to live in Huddersfield and has been a member ever
since, although he now lives near York with his wife Jean.
Past Deputy Provincial Grand Master V W Bro Raymond
Howarth, an honorary member at Thornhill Lodge, handed
over a framed jubilee certificate and chronicled much of
Allan’s Masonic and business career.
In Allan’s own words, these included:
My Father was a Mason during the 1940s in one of the
smaller Lodges in Clydebank but his long hours of work in
the shipyards meant that Masonry was a low priority.
However, in the town where he worked being a Mason or
a Catholic could help you keep your job – a point which
undoubtedly helped my father.
I joined a local Lodge in Clydebank where my pals were
members, rather than my dad’s Lodge and my Initiation
ceremony was in St John Dalmuir No 543, Scottish
Constitution on 28 May 1957, my dad’s birthday.
My Second degree came on 22 October the same year
and my third a month later. It was, to say the least, a
memorable occasion.
I joined the Merchant Navy with the New Zealand
Shipping Company, London in order to spend three years
as a Marine Engineer rather than be a cook or an
infantryman in the Army. The pay was better than a National
Serviceman anyway! During that period I visited Lodges in
the USA, Australia and New Zealand and while in New York
I visited the Grand Lodge of New York State, where the
Master wore a top hat during the ceremony.
In 1960, having left the Merchant Navy, I joined the North
British Locomotive Company as a transmission designer but
after 18 months that company went into liquidation, although
I was assisted by them in getting a job at David Brown Gears,
38
Proud moment . . . W Bro McNeill shows his certificate to members of
Agricola Lodge at York
Huddersfield as a commercial gearbox designer.
After four and a half years there followed a 15-year spell with
Holset Engineering as a Development Engineer before I went back
to David Brown Gears as Chief Designer on the Challenger Tank.
During this time I went to a number of Lodges in Huddersfield
and eventually joined Thornhill Lodge, mainly through the good
graces of W Bro Harry Dunnill, Assistant Provincial Grand Master.
I joined in 1964 when W Bro Leonard Vasey was in the Chair
and I became Master in 1980. My Provincial Appointment, as PP
Dep G Swd B came in 1988.
My first visit to the Lodge was when I went along to a Monday
night practice with my small long case and knocked at the door.
W Bro Edgar Wilson appeared and said it was a practice night
and turned me away! The first night I went to the Lodge I had to
be tested by Bro Harry Sykes JW – and that was a laugh.
So, after a number of visits as W Bro Dunnill’s guest, he
arranged an interview with W Bro Edgar Wilson at his home. I think
he thought that we nomad Scots would be off again before long.
However, Edgar proposed me and W Bro John Rockett, who
had been Initiated in Scotland, seconded me and I remained in
Huddersfield for 26 years.
My everlasting memory of my Installation was the Festive
Board, when both Harry Dunnill and V W Bro Frank Harrison sang
a duet, "Pratty Flowers".
To finish, I had three Scots friends down who sang a Scottish
Medley, accompanied on the piano by W Bro Alec Caldwell. I think,
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