As part of the 2017 Tercentenary and to celebrate the success of the Universities Scheme in the Province of Leicestershire and Rutland, the three Scheme Lodges will be holding a special joint meeting on Saturday 25th February 2017 at Freemasons’ Hall, Leicester.

Under the auspices of an Emergency Meeting of the Wyggeston Lodge No.3448 (University of Leicester), during the afternoon, the ceremonies of Raising, Passing and Initiation will be performed in turn, with the Castle of Leicester Lodge No.7767 (De Montfort University) and Lodge of Science & Art No.8429 (Loughborough University) also undertaking a ceremony each.

Ceremonies will have multiple candidates, and both the Passing and Raising ceremonies will have candidates from across the three Scheme Lodges. We will also be honoured by the presence of the Scheme President R.W.Bro. Sir David Wootton AGM who will be accompanied by the Scheme Chairman W.Bro. Edward Lord, OBE, JGD.

There will be an opportunity to attend some or all of the ceremonies so that those newly initiated, passed or raised are able to enjoy some of the day.

The meeting will start at 2.30pm and will take the following format:

• Castle of Leicester Lodge No.7767 will perform the Raisings, before calling off for light refreshments;
• At 4.15pm the Lodge of Science & Art No.8429 will perform the Passings, before calling off for light refreshments; and
• At 6.00pm the Wyggeston Lodge No.3448 will perform an Initiation ceremony.

The Lodge will then be closed and a drinks reception held, before the joint Festive Board which is sure to be a very memorable evening and full of joviality, not only with three Lodges present but with hopefully a multitude of visitors coming to attend this special event.

The Festive Board will cost £25 without wine and £34 with wine. To book your place please complete the short online form at https://goo.gl/forms/04Q4LXIAG7ummpto2.

Congratulations to W.Bro. Dr. Andy Green, Past Master of the Wyggeston Lodge No.3448, who was promoted to Provincial Junior Grand Warden at the Provincial Grand Lodge of Leicestershire and Rutland Annual Meeting on Friday 25th November 2016.

During his investiture, the Provincial Grand Master, R.W.Bro. David Hagger, paid tribute to Andy’s commitment to Masonry at all levels especially with the Universities Scheme. The Provincial Grand Master and Andy were thrilled to welcome both the Past Assistant Grand Master and Past President of the Universities Scheme, R.W.Bro. David Williamson, and the Scheme’s Chairman, W.Bro. Edward Lord OBE to the meeting.

Andy was Initiated in The Wyggeston Lodge No.3448 in December 1998 and was the first Candidate in the Province of Leicestershire and Rutland to be introduced via the Internet. He became Master in 2006, and subsequently was instrumental in the Wyggeston Lodge joining the Universities Scheme in 2011.

He became a joining member of the Leicestershire and Rutland Lodge of Installed Masters No.7896 in 2013. He joined the Lodge of Research No.2429 in 2014. He is a Founder member of The Iron Bridge Lodge No.9897, Province of Shropshire, in 2015 and was its Primus Mentor. In December 2016, he will be a Founder Member of the David Kenneth Williamson Lodge No.9938, the Installed Masters Lodge for the Universities Scheme.

In the Province of Leicestershire and Rutland, he was appointed active Provincial Senior Grand Deacon in 2012 and the Provincial Webmaster.  In 2013, he was appointed Provincial Training Officer and in 2014 was appointed Provincial Communications Officer a role which he continues today. He is also Chairman of the Provincial Tercentenary Committee.

In the United Grand Lodge of England, he was appointed to serve on the Universities Scheme Committee in 2013 and was promoted to Vice-Chairman in 2015. He was appointed Past Assistant Grand Standard Bearer in 2016.

Bro. Yogesh Patel was Installed as 105th Master of the Wyggeston Lodge No.3448 at the Installation meeting held on Friday 18th November 2016 at Freemasons’ Hall, Leicester.

The lodge was extremely honoured to welcome W.Bro. Richard J Moore, Senior Grand Warden, accompanied by W.Bro. Peter Gibson-Leitch, Assistant Director of Ceremonies, as the representative of the Provincial Grand Master.

The Installing Master, WBro Paul L Bodycot, conducted the Installation ceremony with great sincerity after which WBro Thomas Bodycot addressed the Master.

The Master  invested his Senior Warden, Bro Paul R Marvin, and Junior Warden, Bro John L Harvey, for the ensuing year who were addressed by WBro Robert J Hutchinson.

The Master also invested his remaining Officers including Bro Peter W Clarke, a Universities Scheme Initiate, as Secretary, Bro Robert J Hutchinson as Treasurer. WBro Peter RW Smith addressed the Brethren.

After the meeting the Brethren enjoyed a splendid four course Festive Board including mushroom soup, honey mustard glazed lamb noisettes, and fruit sorbet. In addition, Bro. Peter Clarke generously supplied Graham’s 20 year old Tawny Port as an accompaniment to the cheese and biscuits.

The lodge looks forward to another busy year ahead as the Universities Scheme lodge for the University of Leicester which already has planned a quadruple Initiation at the December meeting.

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Bro. John Phillips recounts his recent trip to the Somme to lay a wreath on behalf of the Wyggeston Lodge and the Master whose father fought in the battle 100 years ago.

It seems strange to say this, to strip away 100 years in a few words, but I owe everything around me to the first day of the Somme. It was finding pieces of rusty, century old barbed wire on the battlefield that made me head to university to study archaeology. Before that I, like many people in their early twenties, had no clue where my life was heading. Six years after picking up that barbed wire, I’m sat writing this on my lunch break at my job as a full time archaeologist.
It was whilst studying at University of Leicester that I decided to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps and join freemasonry. That of course, turned out to be a decision that opened my life up to so many new friends, new experiences and new ways of thinking. The Somme sent me to Leicester. Without the Somme I would not be an archaeologist or a Freemason. 
I’d known since that day six years ago that I needed to repay those that fought and died on July 1st 1916, if only in a small way. I never could have predicted I’d be paying my respect on behalf of Freemasons, but life takes you in so many different directions. Of course, for the 20,000 killed on the 1st July 1916, those twists and turns that make a life a life were never possible. 20,000 dead. That number gets retold so often that we become numb to it. 20,000 dead on a single day in the same place. It is utterly staggering.

At one of the festive boards of Wyggeston Lodge No.3448, I was chatting about the battlefields to some of the brethren, when our Master Elect leaned over and mentioned that his own father had fought at the Somme two years later in 1918. Paul Bodycot took the chair for the 2015/2016 Masonic year and I realised just how special, how once in a lifetime it was that the son of a Somme veteran would be Master 100 years exactly since the start of the first battle. Perhaps even more moving was that Paul’s brother Tom is a Past Master in the Lodge. Their father fought as a Private in the 2/4th Leicesters, C Company. He was captured on the 21st March 1918 during the first day of the German Spring Offensive at Ervillers. He was 19 years old. He would, in the traditional sense, have been too young to join the craft. 19 years old. Three years younger than I was when I found that barbed wire on the battlefield. I put forward to the lodge that I would lay a wreath at the Thiepval memorial to the missing, where the centenary will be largely focused. The idea was met with an instant yes. I was honoured to take on the responsibility.

Each time I drive through the Somme I am humbled by the calmness of the beautiful French landscape. Never could you imagine the horrors that occurred a century ago. As I walk through the miles of headstones it is easy to forget that beneath each name is the remains of an actual person, a mother’s son. As an archaeologist we often talk of how the people of the distant past lived full lives, had the same problems as us, the same woes. Those in the First World War were often so young that this was not the case. The youngest soldier to fight at the Somme was 12 years old. Those 20,000, and the hundreds of thousands throughout the war did not get to live their lives. We must never forget their sacrifice. 

It was quiet as I walked towards the Thiepval memorial, wreath in hand. A group of school children were searching the list of names for any that matched theirs. I looked around at the fields, the mud and the sky. Nothing ever changes on the Somme. The same earth I walked across is the same the men fought for. It is a perpetual 1916. Farmers still find skeletons every year. It is not a part of history but a part of the present. As I placed the wreath, I thought of everything I owed to the boys of the Somme. I thought of Paul and Tom’s father. I thought of not only the Freemasons that found themselves in the trenches, but each and every soldier that gave themselves for their country. I suppose there can be no stronger masonic trait than that sort of selfless giving.

I placed the wreath and walked away. The words I’d written echoed through my head as I headed out into the countryside: “From the brothers of Wyggeston Lodge to those that gave their lives a century ago. We will never forget. Thank you”.