Freemasonry Victoria - Freemasons Victoria

News
Getting to know
the Grand
Master Elect
4 Freemasonry Victoria SuMMer 2010
A Grand Master Begins
When the young Constable Vaughan Werner
stood outside the door of the Diamond
Valley Lodge for the first time at the age of
24, he could only anticipate the journey he
was about to take over the next few hours.
Little could he have guessed however that
journey would result some 45 years later
with his obligation as Grand Master.
“I commenced work in a country town” now
RWBro Werner told Freemasonry Victoria,
“and almost immediately became conscious
that the community leaders, the ones who
got things done in the area, were also the
same people that I saw in dinner suits
going to Lodge of an evening. It convinced
me there was something in Freemasonry
that bonded these men together and I
resolved as early as my teens that I too
would one day become a Freemason.”
“I waited until Bev and I were settled
in our first home and then made
myself known at The Diamond Valley
Lodge. The following day an application
form arrived on our doorstep.”
RWBro. Werner would take the chair as
Worshipful Master in his Mother Lodge in
1974 as part of the Seven Siders Masters’
Group. He recalls that in his year tails were
still regularly worn by Masters, ladies were
not present at meetings even for the banquet
table and it was rare to visit a lodge without
seeing degree work carried out due to the
strong influx of candidates that still prevailed.
“Our Masters’ Group held a debutante ball at
the Heidelberg Town Hall over many years.
The late MWBro. Dr. George Bearham OBE
MD DGO GRACOG and his daughter had
the debs presented to them annually. Lodge
social events were held on a large scale in
those days and always involved Brethren
from neighbouring lodges. But it’s fair to
say that Freemasonry was very much “in the
closet” in that era and there were no signs
that opening the window to the public would
occur at any time in the immediate future.”
His career in the police force has been
well documented in previous issues of
Freemasonry Victoria and elsewhere,
particularly his years in command of the
Royal Police Air Wing, Water Police and
State Search and Rescue, State Criminal
Investigation, the Bureau of Criminal
Intelligence, the State Forensic Science
Laboratory and the darker periods of
Victorian Police history including command
at the Hoddle Street and Queen Street
massacres and the Walsh Street murders
of Constables Tynan and Eyre.
Along with being installed as Worshipful
Master of Diamond Valley in 1974, he has
also acted as it’s Organist, Director and
Secretary, and was conferred the rank of Past
Grand Standard Bearer in 1983 before being
appointed active Grand Sword Bearer in