As Worshipful Brother Bob Reeves came to the end of his year as Master of the Lodge of Uniformed Services, No. 9911, Cumberland & Westmorland, he had to decide what to do with a sum of money which the lodge had realised from its collaboration with Heversham Lodge in the organising of the Burns Supper and Ceilidh, which was held at the Castle Green Hotel, Kendal last February.  It was quite a substantial sum of money, amounting to £900.00 in total.  He decided that he would like to support the armed forces charity, Veterans in Action.  We had received a talk in 2018 from the COO, Billy McLeod and one of the trustees, WBro Scott Carr.

Arrangements to present the cheque for that amount went awry on 19th September, when Bob, accompanied by W. Bros Richard Cowie and Bob Erett travelled to Middlewich in Cheshire, to visit the John Brunner Lodge, No. 2799, where they were to meet with Scott Carr to make the presentation. The M6 and its traffic conspired to thwart the arrangements, when due to two accidents, it took many hours to drive to Middlewich.  Then to compound the problem, W. Bro. Carr was unable, at the last minute, to make the journey from Hampshire.

The intrepid three visited the lodge anyway. It would have been rude not to.  They were warmly received as would be expected. WBro. Reeves was asked by the Worshipful Master of the Lodge to address the brethren and to tell them how much was to have been presented. When the amount was announced, the Worshipful Master said that the charity collection that evening would be added to the total.

When that collection was counted, it amounted to £208.00.

Arrangements were made to visit the John Brunner Lodge again at the November meeting and on Wednesday 20th November, WBros Reeves, Erett and Peter Brookes-Tee, accompanied by their wives, travelled to Middlewich and checked into the Kinderton House Hotel.  This time, the M6 behaved itself and there were no difficulties with the travel arrangements.  The three couples were joined by WBro. Scott Carr and at last, everyone was in the same place at the same time.

At the lodge meeting held that evening, the brethren were treated to an initiation ceremony. Initiations are always special occasions, but this one was extra special, in that WBro. Rick Bradfield, in the chair, had the important task of initiating his son, Mr Thomas Andrew Bradfield. In an emotionally charged ceremony, Mr Bradfield was made a Mason and everyone present enjoyed the ceremony very much.  That new mason is a paramedic and he was supported by colleagues from the Ambulance Service and he clearly enjoyed the experience.  Assisting in the ceremony, explaining the mode of preparation and delivering the First Degree Charge was Rick’s other son, WBro Richard Bradfield, PPrJGD, Heatherden Lodge No. 7345, Buckinghamshire.

After the ceremony of initiation, WBro. Reeves was invited by the Worshipful Master to address the lodge.  He did so, reminding the brethren of the reason for our visit.  The three brethren then joined to present the cheque for £900.00 to WBro. Carr. WBro. Rick Bradfield then presented the cheque for £208.00 from the John Brunner Lodge.

After a photo call, the brethren repaired to the dining room for the festive board.  There, a fine four course dinner was provided in a well filled room.  After dinner, WBro. Carr was asked to respond to the toast to the visitors.  He thanked the brethren of the Lodge of Uniformed Services and of the John Brunner Lodge for their generosity.  Then he surprised many of the brethren present, by telling the gathering that the generosity had not stopped at the donation of those two cheques.  Individual brethren who were present had approached him over dinner and given various amounts of money for the Veterans in Action charity.  He was quite overwhelmed by this display of generosity and went away that evening a very happy man.

A photograph has been received, showing WBro Carr handing over the cheques, cash etc to the Chief Operations Officer of Victims in Action, Mr Billy McLeod.

And so, the objective was achieved and it is certain that there will be many of the charity’s clients who will benefit from the generosity shown that evening.  The story should not end there, as there will be a connection between the two lodges in the future.  Invitations were issued to the installation meeting when WBro. Scott Carr will again be inducted in the chair of his lodge in Hampshire.  Isn’t Freemasonry wonderful, brethren who have never met before become friends during the course of one meeting.  While they do this, they do good to others and enjoy doing it.