The Grand Master’s Lodges of Instruction Annual Festival
The Grand Master’s Lodges of Instruction have been educating and entertaining R.A.M. and Mark brethren for well over a century, by holding Annual Festivals in London and the Provinces the length and breadth of England and Wales. This year was the 138th Festival and we were hosted on 29 April right royally at the Masonic Hall in Grimsby by the Province of Lincolnshire.
Many months of administrative preparation on the part of the local Executive and the Festival Secretary were conducted simultaneously with rehearsals at MMH; the culmination of all this hard work being another splendidly successful presentation of the Elevation and Advancement ceremonies.
As has been the case for the last two years this has not only been a ‘demonstration’ of the highest standards of ceremony and ritual, but the host Provinces have also invited the team to take over the Offices of Lodges within each Province and confer the ceremonies upon candidates and not simply brethren selected to act in that capacity for the exemplification of the work. Once again this year in Grimsby, Bayons Lodge of R.A.M. No.1365 was opened and the ceremony of Elevation conferred upon Bro. Richard Hollingsworth, son of the Prov.G.Sec. for Lincolnshire, W. Bro. Neil Hollingsworth. There followed the opening of St Matthew Lodge of MMM No.1239 and the GMLofI team conferred the Advancement ceremony on Bro. Eric Whitworth, who also proved to be a very worthy candidate.
Those Lodge meetings were conducted under the watchful gaze of our Assistant Grand Master, R.W. Bro. Prof. Denovan Keith Wilson. Both he and Lincolnshire’s PGM R.W. Bro. Stephen Hallberg, President of the Festival, made reference to the excellent standards demonstrated by the GMLofI team and the extent to which the 160 brethren present and the two candidates had enjoyed such a feast of masonic ceremony.
The brethren of Lincolnshire are to be congratulated and thanked for their extensive co-operation, hard work and assistance in making this Festival such a resounding success – especially in ferrying the GMLofI team in a fleet of cars and ensuring all their local transport requirements over the three day period were carefully fulfilled.
The Festival itself was graced by the presence of three Past Presidents of previous Festivals, a number of our own PGMs and the Grand Master of the Grande Loge De Marque De France plus his Assistant Grand Master and Deputy Grand Treasurer.
The GMLofI for R.A.M. and Mark meets at MMH on the 1st and 3rd Mondays (generally) at 5pm. Rehearsals are open to all brethren, irrespective of rank. Those interested in attending should contact the Secretary, W. Bro. Chris Rose (cs.rose@btinternet.com) for further details.
And finally, my very grateful thanks to the members of my team who have applied themselves so diligently to the rituals over the past months and have succeeded in upholding and maintaining the high standards which their predecessors have done for the past 137 Festivals! The 2026 Festival will be held in London under the Presidency of the PGM for London on Thursday 30 April.
R.W. Bro Tom Quinn
Preceptor
