Worth Knights this is the sixth occasion on which I have had the privilege and very great pleasure of addressing you at our Divisional Meeting.
Many of you will know that I have had a period this year where I was not able to attend as many Conclaves and Divisional Meeting as I would have wished. This was due to being diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and then undergoing Hormone treatment and 37 sessions of Radio Therapy. I decided to make it public knowledge right from the beginning, as I knew that a number of you had already been through the process that I was undergoing. This produced the information that a considerable number of our members had suffered from Prostate Cancer. A number of you were very helpful to me with indication of how it had affected them and advice on how to deal with it. Worthy Knights you know who you are and I wish to express my very grateful thanks to you for your help and support.
May I now pay tribute to all the members of this Division that were mentioned in our requiem earlier. Their devotion and dedication to this Order was immense. They were all well known to us, and many had served this Order faithfully and diligently for a considerable number of years. But, I must make particular mention of one. I do not always get it right but in the cases of appointing my Deputies I have got right twice. V.Ill Knight Jameson Arthur Beaney, Jim to us all, was the epitome of what a dedicated Red Cross Mason should be. He was a gentleman in every sense of the term. He had been a member of the RED X since 1983, and had served his three Conclaves, Rose of Wessex, St Peter and St Paul and Mystic Rose diligently and faithfully. He served the Division for many years culminating in the office of Deputy Intendant-General, also rising to the V Ill rank of Past Grand High Almoner. Jim was an exceptional Deputy for me. He was always with me and was everywhere in the Division. He provided me with a knowledge of the Division that was unparalleled, with advice that was always to the point and very appropriate. He did get a little cross with me when I insisted that the Toast List had his full name on it Jameson Arthur Beaney, he did not like the Jameson bit. One of the things that showed Jim in his true light, was that everyone agreed with his appointment as Deputy Intendant- General. I have never heard a criticism of Jim by anyone. He was loved by us all and is sorely missed.
I congratulate all those who will be appointed to or promoted in Grand Imperial Conclave early next month.
On Promotion
Fred Blowman to Past Grand High Chancellor (V.ILL)
Roy Rudling to Past Grand High Chancellor (V.ILL)
On first Appointment
Charles Aspinell as the Grand Sword Bearer
Graham Brown as Past Grand Warden of Regalia
Matthew Knight as Past Grand Warden of Regalia
Rod Armitage as Past Grand Warden of Regalia
We were particularly pleased to see the appointment of Charles Aspinell as the Grand Sword Bearer. Despite all his other Masonic Duties he has been able to support this Division and his Conclave fully. It is a promotion so very well merited; in fact they are all very well deserved and follow many years of dedicated service to the Order. I look forward to seeing you all in London for your Investiture and also I trust many of you who will no doubt be supporting them.
I congratulate all those that have been appointed to office today. It is an honour that is well deserved by you all. I look forward to working with you during the next year. I would remind you all that you are expected to attend as many official visits as you can, that also includes those promoted to a Past Divisional Rank, as we treat you all as active for this year.
The membership figures in the summons reflect the year ending 31st August 2015. They show an increase of only 1 membership. This appears to be largely due to the number of resignations – 10, which have all been looked at in detail. This year’s figures show an increase of 6 memberships. This is a step in the right direction, but we can never be complacent.
We have had a good number of new members, some of whom are present today.
Would you please stand as I call your names
W Kt’s of the Division of Hampshire and Isle of Wight, I introduce to you some of our new Kts. I trust you will give them a hearty welcome whenever you see them, and provide them with help, guidance and companionship in this wonderful Order. You will note that 3 of them have been appointed to the Guard.
If we are to survive and grow our efforts in recruitment must increase. You are all well aware that the best method of recruitment is for each member to make approaches to individuals about joining us. I would remind Sovereigns and Viceroys that they should be bringing in an individual each in their year of office. But this does not mean that the rest of us can stand back and watch. It is vitally important that we all bring in new members. Of course the Division will help in any way we can – Recruitment evenings, dine a Royal Arch Mason evenings and the use of our Pop up Banner. V Ill Kt Larry (my Deputy) coordinates these efforts. Recruitment is still our major preoccupation and must remain so.
Ill Kt Larry and myself have undertaken 15 official visits within the division this year. With the addition of the Divisional Recorder, between us we have made 38 individual visits to other 23 Divisions. All these visits have been marked by the warmth of the welcome and hospitality and in the case of the Conclaves, the sincerity and warmth of the ceremonies we have witnessed. The visits within our own Division are enhanced by the support of the active Officers, the Divisional Guard and the many Grand Officers that attend with us. They all have my grateful thanks; their support has been nothing short of magnificent.
I now wish to acknowledge the immense amount of work undertaken by my Deputy V Ill Kt Larry Peer. His advice and guidance continues to be in valuable to me. Ill Kt Stewart Taynton retires as the Divisional Recorder today, after serving as Assistant Recorder for 4 years and The Recorder for another 4 years. His contribution to the Division has been immense. He has worked tirelessly on our behalf. I am delighted to have been able to appoint him to a higher position in the Division as the Venerable Divisional Eusebius and Divisional Viceroy. However, I could not let his services as Divisional Assistant Recorder and Divisional Recorder go by without some lasting memento of our gratitude. Divisional Marshal will you please present Ill Kt Stewart to me. (Make presentation)
WE now have a new Divisional Recorder Ill Kt. Tony Bargrove. I thank him for taking on this office and for his work in the last year as the Divisional Assistant Recorder.
We also have a new Divisional Almoner Ill Kt Mike Goody. Ill Kt Peter Dowden- Smith has served in this capacity for a considerable time. He has been an exceptional Divisional Almoner, and his dedication to the task has provoked many congratulatory remarks from the members he has served. I am pleased to say we will still be able to draw on his expertise and Peter you have mine and the Divisions very grateful thanks.
I thank the Divisional Marshal Ill Kt Kevin Todd and his Deputy Ill Kt Malcolm Lloyd who I rely on so much. They have done a super job for us and put up with my tinkering with fortitude and great patience. Ill Kt Malcolm retires today after many years in many offices. I am very relieved that he has indicated I can continue to call on him. Malcolm I am very grateful for all you have done. I also extend my thanks to My Divisional Guard, The Captain of the Guard – P Kt Chris Davis and Deputy Captain of the Guard W Kt Mark Gannaway, who play such a substantial role with in this Division, not only on Official Visits but on all Appendant Orders Ceremonies.
Communications within the Division has been enhanced again by very successful Executive meeting and also the Divisional General Purposes meeting. I also use the Sovereigns’ Conclave St Peter and St Paul as a discussion forum to float new ideas.
The Ladies’ evening at Winchester was a wonderful event. Our Key Board player gets better each time, and it was very clear that the Ladies enjoyed it immensely.
You are all aware that the collection today will go to our Divisional Relief Chest.
When included with other donations to it from individual Conclaves we were able to make a donation of £3500 to the Grand Sovereign’s Children’s Fund associated with the 150thcelebrations of the order.
In 2021 we will be celebrating 150 years as a Division. As we have had various names during that period with links to other Divisions, I have confirmed with MMH that we will have had 150 years of continuous operation. We need to start our planning now. Our first priority is the writing of a history of the Division and V Ill Kt John Makin has agreed to undertake that task. I intend to have within the History a history of each Conclave and it is necessary to have someone in each Conclave who will undertake that task. The Annual Meeting in 2021 will be the focus of our celebrations, when we hope that the Grand Sovereign will join us. Other celebrations will probably centre on the biennial Church service and another function that will involve our families.
While looking at histories may I remind the Conclaves that you and in particular the Sovereigns are responsible for the safe keeping of the Conclave records – Minute Books etc. When the histories are written you may like to consider placing the minutes etc with the County archive service. We will provide details in due course.
I, accompanied by V Ill Kt Larry Peer, Ill Kt Lee Robinson and Ill Kt Bruce Dyson, were privileged to be a very special occasion on the 8th of this Month. Thanks to the effort of his son John we were able to visit V Ill Kt Batt Dingle in his nursing Home. The staff, at Johns request, had dressed Batt in his Red Cross regalia and we in our regalia were able to present to Batt, on the Grand Sovereign’s behalf, a certificate for 60 years’ service to the Order of the Red Cross of Constantine. The certificate was on parchment and beautifully designed for this presentation as MMH had not celebrated 60 years in the Red X before. Batt who is very unwell, clearly enjoyed the occasion, recognising us all, and able to have a brief coherent discussion with myself at the end.
Worthy Knights, the last year as your Intendant-General, has been stimulating, encouraging, challenging and above all, most enjoyable. You are all well aware that we are a truly Christian Order and it should be emphasised throughout our sojourn as a member of this Order. In fact we should emphasise it in our recruitment so that no candidate should ever arrive at his installation in any doubt as to the relationship between the Order and his Christian beliefs.
Worthy Knights may I thank you all for attending today. I thanks Stewart and Tony, and Kevin for organising today, and the staff at Botley for the meal to come. I look forward to working with you in the next year and we part with the watchwords of our wonderful Order:
FAITH UNITY and ZEAL
God bless you all
R.Ill.Kt. Roger Charles Bricknell
June 2016.