Carnarvon
Lodge 1739
Next Meeting - 1st Degree Ceremony - Tuesday 17th September 2024: 18:30hrs
Hall Stone Jewel
“The jewel is in the form of a cross, symbolising sacrifice, with a perfect square at the four ends, on the left and right squares the dates of 1914-1918, the years in which the supreme sacrifice was made. Between these is a winged figure of peace, presenting the representation of a temple with special masonic allusion in the pillars, porch and steps. The medal is suspended by the Square and Compasses, attached to a ribbon, the whole symbolising the Craft’s gift of a temple in memory of those 3,225 English Freemasons who made the supreme sacrifice and who gave all for King and Country, Peace and Victory, Liberty and Brotherhood”.
Carnarvon Lodge 1739 is honoured with the Hall Stone Lodge Jewel.
In 1919 a specially convened meeting of the United Grand Lodge of England was held to celebrate peace and was attended by a large number of Brethren. The M.W. Grand Master the Duke of Connaught made his first appeal to the Craft. He asked for funds to provide a Masonic Peace Memorial worthy of the Craft, and the Masonic Million Memorial Fund was thus inaugurated. It was agreed that this memorial should be a building for the central home for Freemasonry. The Masonic Million Memorial Fund was then launched in September that year and brethren both at home and overseas were invited to contribute to raise the £1000,000 needed to finance the work. The voluntary contributions from individuals and Lodges were to be recognised by the award of the Masonic Million Memorial Fund Commemorative Jewel.
Masters of Lodges contributing an average of ten guineas (£10.50) per member, would be awarded the commemorative jewel (roughly the equivalent of £645 today) such Lodges would then be known as Hall Stone Lodges (thus giving the jewel its name) and their names and numbers were inscribed on commemorative marble panels in the main ceremonial entrance vestibule of Freemasons’ Hall London.
Carnarvon Lodge received the Hall Stone Jewel and became a Hall Stone Jewel Lodge in 1924. This was an amazing achievement given that the average weekly wage was then around £2.20.
The Hall Stone Jewel worn by the Worshipful Master of Carnarvon Lodge on all Masonic occasions and is transferred to the new Worshipful Master of the Lodge as is the right of every Hall Stone Jewel Lodge during the Lodge’s Installation meeting. The Jewel and light blue collar has been proudly worn by successive Masters of the Lodge since it was awarded to Carnarvon Lodge.
Masonic Peace Memorial raised from the ground
Building work on the Masonic Peace Memorial, commenced in 1927 taking six years to construct, the hall was dedicated on 19th July 1933. The name was changed to Freemasons Hall at the outbreak of the second World War in 1939, the building in the Art Deco style is now a grade two listed building both inside and out. Inside the Memorial Shrine commemorates the 3,225 brethren who died on active service in the First World War and in whose memory the building was raised.
The theme of the stained glass memorial window is the attainment of Peace through Sacrifice, with the Angel of Peace carrying a model of the tower of the building. A bronze memorial casket was designed by Walter Gilbert (1871-1946), who also designed the Victoria Memorial facing Buckingham Palace. The casket contains the memorial roll which can be viewed through a glass aperture, at the corner of which are gilt figures representing our fighting services.
© 2021 Carnarvon Lodge 1739
