Lodge history

This lodge history is very largely based upon the fine work undertaken by W.Bro.W.Brain, which, in the opinion of the webmaster can scarcely be bettered in its scope and attention to detail. Therefore, it is reproduced here apart from some minor changes to reflect the present day, as well as some early historical background.

There can be no doubt that the man chiefly responsible for the formation of the Hull Old Grammarians Lodge was W.Bro. Benno Pearlman P.P.G.W., and it is only fitting that a little should be said about this remarkable man.

Benno Pearlman was a successful solicitor with a high professional reputation. He had for many years taken an active part in civic affairs and was an Alderman of the City of Kingston upon Hull. He had always taken an interest in his old school, for which he had great affection, and had been for many years the Chairman of the School Governors.

His Masonic interests were widespread. He was Initiated into the De La Pole Lodge No. 1605 in 1903 and was a Founder Member of the Thesaurus Lodge No. 3891 whose Chair he occupied three times. He later became a Founder Member and first Master of the Andrew Marvell Lodge No. 5642, and was also a Past Master of the Montefiore Lodge. He was subsequently made an Officer of Grand Lodge and because of his energy and personality was a dominant force in all these Lodges.

We know that for some time, certain Old Boys of the Hull Grammar School who were Freemasons, had been in the habit of meeting regularly at each others homes and that their talk had eventually covered the possibility of forming a new Lodge for Hull Old Grammarians and Masters of the School. Who first had the idea cannot be ascertained with certainty, but this quotation from an address given by one of our Founders, W.Bro. Geoffrey Hindson in 1936 is very persuasive:

"W.Bro. Benno Pearlman was the Lord Mayor of this City in the year 1928-9 and he was constantly exercising his mind during that year as to what he could do best to promote the welfare and happiness of his fellow citizens, and in particular how he could express in fitting form his gratitude and devotion to the Hull Grammar School where he had received his early education. He himself was a Freemason of many years standing and deeply conscious of the inestimable privileges possessed by those who faithfully carried out its principles and tenets in their daily lives. He conceived the idea of forming a Masonic Lodge to be associated with the School and to bear its name, in this way forming a further and closer bond of union between the old scholars of the School and uniting them in our great Brotherhood. This idea can only have risen in the mind of W.Bro. Pearlman from his firm conviction that Freemasonry affords that education in conduct and morals which is a fitting continuation of similar principles instilled during boyhood days at School, and appealing to the best that is in us to make this world a better place for ourselves and our fellow men."

W. Bro. Pearlman subsequently claimed that the formation of the Lodge was his greatest achievement in his year as Lord Mayor of the City. Certainly it was he who invited all Old Grammarians who were members of the Craft to a meeting at the Guildhall, where he explained his project. His views received enthusiastic support and a decision was taken to petition the Grand Lodge of England for a Warrant. In all, twenty-nine Brethren agreed to become Founder Members. They included eleven Past Masters, six of whom were Past Provincial Grand Officers. 

After this meeting events moved rapidly. The Kingston Lodge No. 1010 agreed to act as Sponsors, the Prayer for the formation of the Hull Old Grammarians Lodge of Freemasons was granted and a Warrant was issued on 3rd June, 1929.

The Consecration took place at the Central Masonic Hall, Park Street, Hull on Monday the 4th November, 1929 and 147 Brethren signed the Attendance Book. The Consecrating Officer was the Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master, The Most Honourable the Marquess of Zetland, P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E. He was accompanied by the Worshipful Deputy Provincial Grand Master, W.Bro. Miles J. Stapylton P.G.D., eight Officers of Grand Lodge and twenty-nine Present and Past Officers of Provincial Grand Lodge.

The Lodge was Constituted and Consecrated according to Antient Custom and with Solemn Rite by the Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master. He then vacated the Chair and the Worshipful Deputy Provincial Grand Master Installed W.Bro. Hubert Johnson P.P.G.W. as the first Master of the Lodge.

The Officers were then appointed. W.Bro. Benno Pearlman P.P.G.W. was the Immediate Past Master; Bro. J.E. Forty, the former Head Master of the School, was Senior Warden and the Junior Warden was another Master of the School, W.Bro. F. N. Williams P.P.G.A.D.C. James Edwin Forty (Jimmy to those many hundreds of Old Grammarians who loved and respected him) deserves special mention. He had been Headmaster of the School from 1893 until his retirement in 1926 and in that time had built up an almost dead Grammar School into a live institution with a distinctive place in the City. He was a Past Warden of the Humber Lodge No. 57 of which he had been a member for nearly thirty years and was one of the key figures in the formation of our Lodge.

The list of Officers contained other Brethren who were to play a notable part in the formative years of the Lodge, including W.Bro. Geoffrey Hindson, the first Lecture Master and Bro. Frank Glew who eventually succeeded him in that appointment. The Treasurer was W.Bro. Harold W. Locking P.P.G.W. and his brother, Bro. Herbert 0. Locking was Secretary. That these two brothers each continued in their Offices for sixteen years was of inestimable value to the Lodge.

The first Regular Meeting of the Lodge was held on the 19th November 1929, when Robert James Porter, a very popular Master of the School, became the first Initiate.

In its first year the Lodge grew rapidly. There were twelve Initiates and three Joining Members, so membership increased to forty-four. In the second year, when W.Bro. James E. Forty was Master, there were eight Initiates and in the third year, when W.Bro. Benno Pearlman was in the Chair there were five. At that time the Lodge met eight times a year, its Regular Meetings being held in the first four and last four months of the year, so it was necessary to hold a large number of Emergency Meetings in order to Initiate, Pass and Raise all these candidates. There were four such meetings in the first year, six in the second and ten in the third. After this the number declined but the necessity for holding them did not entirely disappear for some years. At many of these meetings and at the Regular Meetings, two candidates were taken together, and it was not unknown for two different Degrees to be worked on the same night.

Lodge Meetings were first held in the small Temple, then upstairs at the front of the Masonic Hall in Park Street, Hull, with Installations and other special meetings being held in the main Thesaurus Lodge Temple, downstairs. 

This intimate upstairs Temple was very suitable for a small Lodge, as it appeared well filled by an attendance of forty to fifty. Meetings were held in the evenings at 7.00 p.m. and evening dress was worn, white tie and tails by the Officers and dinner jackets by the Brethren.

Because of the seven o'clock start, meetings naturally finished later than they now do. Even so it was customary for many members to stay long after the Parting Toast and enjoy a protracted sing-song round the piano. Some Brethren would then go on to the Masonic Club, and to arrive home in the early hours was not uncommon. This however was typical of Masonic Life in the City at that time, even though it contrasts with present customs.

A few of the events in the first ten years of the Lodge may be mentioned.

In 1932 a Committee was formed to consider all matters relating to the formation of a Royal Arch Chapter, but there is no mention in the Minutes of its deliberations or conclusions. In 1933 the Initiation Fee was raised from fifteen to twenty guineas, although the annual subscription remained at three guineas. It may seem incredible to us in these days of inflation, but these fees then remained unchanged for thirty years. In 1934 the membership had grown to fifty-seven of whom 14 were Country Members. In December of that year the Minutes proudly proclaim a record attendance of forty-one members out of a possible forty-three.

In 1935 Benno Pearlman took the Chair of the Lodge for the second time. This was almost certainly due to his wish to preside over the Lodge when it joined in the celebration of the Grammar School's 450th Anniversary. An Emergency Meeting was held on 29th September, 1936 which was attended by the Worshipful Deputy Provincial Grand Master, W.Bro. W.L. Wade-Dalton P.G.D. and many other distinguished guests. An address was given by W.Bro. Geoffrey Hindson who that year was the Provincial Senior Grand Warden. In it he paid tribute to the School and not only praised its past but looked forward to its future with hope and confidence. He then gave a brief account of the formation of the Lodge, some of which has been quoted earlier. The Worshipful Deputy Provincial Grand Master then unveiled two Honours Boards, one containing the names of the Founders and the other those of the Masters of the Lodge. He also congratulated the Worshipful Master on his appointment as Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies. For the first time there was a Grand Lodge Officer in the Lodge.

In 1936 the Lodge expressed its confidence in the future by increasing the number of Regular Meetings to nine. The additional meeting was in May.

The Early Days: 600 years of history [top of page]

Bishop John Alcock 1430-1500

The first certain references to Hull Grammar School date from 1431, at which time the school was sponsored by the borough authorities and sited in a building on the south side of Holy Trinity Churchyard, still visible today as the structure built in the year 1583 after the Mayor, William Gee, made a donation of £130 (a fortune in those days) towards the costs. Bishop John Alcock, a former pupil, gave the school its first endowment in the year 1479. He was a distinguished Churchman, Bishop of Worcester, Rochester, and Ely and Lord Chancellor of England under three kings. As Bishop of Ely, he also founded Jesus College, Cambridge.

Andrew Marvell 1621-1678

Distinguished pupils of the school include Andrew Marvell. He attended the School in the first part of the seventeenth century, his father being Priest at Winestead and Lecturer at the Holy Trinity Church. He represented the City for many years in Parliament and is now rightly regarded as one of our finest poets. He protected John Milton from retribution during the Civil War.

William Wilberforce 1759-1833

Another celebrated pupil was William Wilberforce who attended the School in his early years and became a firm friend of Isaac Milner who was then the Usher and brother of the famous Headmaster, Joseph Milner the evangelist. Isaac later became Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. While touring Europe as a young man with Milner, Wilberforce became converted to Wesleyan beliefs, which were to form the basis for his later work to abolish slavery in the British Empire.

Early Freemasonry in Hull [top of page]

Much might be said of the noble art,

A craft that's worth esteeming in each part,

Sundry nations' nobles and their kings also

Oh, how they sought its worth to know !

Nimrod, and Solomon the wisest of men,

Reason saw to love this science then.

I'll say no more, lest by my shallow verses I,

Endeavouring to praise, should blemish Masonrie

'Nimrod & Solomon' - a verse composed by an unknown Yorkshire brother, c.1600

Freemasonry in Kingston Upon Hull in its present form can be traced back to the mid-18th century. The first known lodge in the city was the Black Bull Lodge No.252, warranted by the "Moderns" on August 20, 1759 at the Black Bull inn, Mytongate. _An "Atholl" lodge, the Kingston-upon-Hull Lodge No.78 was also warranted soon afterwards on September 3rd 1759. In 1761, the Blue Bell inn was host to the Blue Bell Lodge which gained its warrant from the "Moderns" on October 27th of that year. None of these lodges survived the Union. Other, largely unknown, early Hull lodges include the RodneyLodge No.436 (1781, "Moderns") and the Phoenix Lodge No.363 (1817) which met at 14 High Street. Again, both the Rodney and Phoenix lodges are long defunct.

Old Hull lodges which survive to this day are the Humber Lodge No.57, opened at the Fleece Inn on March 16th, 1809 using a 1756 warrant re-issed from the Ancient Knight Templars in Liverpool. The Brethren adopted the name Ancient Knight Templars' Lodge until the change to Humber Lodge in 1810.

The longest surviving Hull lodge with a continuous record is the Minerva Lodge No.250, warranted by the "Moderns" in 1783. The Hull Old Grammarians' Lodge No.5129 is proud to be one of those lodges to meet at the premises of the Minerva Lodge in Dagger Lane.

The Early Days of Dagger Lane [top of page]

The land upon which the Lodge premises on Dagger Lane was built was originally part of Maud Camin's property. From there, it then passed through the hands of the Abbot of Meaux and King Edward I, who in turn ceded it to the De-la-Pole family. In 1420 it was jointly owned by William De-la-Pole and the Scope of Massingham. Later, it fell in to the hands of John Grimsby. Dagger Lane was then known as Champion Street, which was a small country lane just inside the city walls.

The freehold to the Lodge was purchased in 1874 and during the alterations the flooring of the old chapel was removed and a vault was discovered containing a coffin lying with the head towards the north. The vault, eventually bricked up, measured some seven feet by four and a feet.

The War Years [top of page]

At the outbreak of war in September 1939, Grand Lodge issued an edict suspending all Lodge Meetings until further notice. This was lifted before the end of the year, but it prevented the Lodge from holding an Election Night in October or an Installation in November. Consequently the Worshipful Master, W.Bro. Douglas Williams continued in office for a second year.

The War naturally had as profound an effect on Masonry as it had on life in general. Because of the black-out and the danger of air raids, meetings were held much earlier. In this Lodge they were usually held at 5.45 p.m. in the Summer months, but at lunch-time during the Autumn and Winter. Evening dress disappeared, to be replaced by dark morning dress or uniform. Attendance at meetings fell as Brethren joined the Armed Forces or were evacuated from Hull, and at times was as low as thirteen.

In May 1940, By-Law No.1 was amended to make June a Regular Meeting. The meeting that September was the first to be interrupted by the War. Bro. Arthur Stanley Wells was taking his Second Degree and had just answered the necessary questions when the Lodge had to adjourn temporally because of threatened enemy action. Other meetings were also interrupted, but always by false alarms. No actual air-raid took place during a Lodge Meeting.

In January 1941 no ceremony was worked and the Lodge merely Opened and Closed. Because of the shortage of candidates this happened on many subsequent occasions, though talks by W.Bro. Frank Glew, the Lecture Master, often illuminated an otherwise barren meeting.

Destruction of the Temple [top of page]

On the night of May 8th 1941, the Masonic Hall in Park Street was seriously damaged and rendered unfit for use by a high explosive bomb during a heavy air-raid. Much of our Lodge Furniture was destroyed, including the Three Chairs, Candlesticks, Wardens' Columns and Honours Boards. Fortunately the Lodge Regalia was undamaged. During the same month the Humber Lodge building in Anne Street and the De La Pole Lodge building in Osborne Street were totally destroyed. The Minerva Lodge No. 250 very generously offered the use of their Hall in Dagger Lane to all Lodges which were without a home. Together with others we gratefully accepted their invitation.

In 1942 the subscription for all Service Members was fixed at one guinea.

It was also decided to change the months of recess from July and August to January and February to lessen air-raid risks. Attendances at meetings began to improve and so did the number of Candidates. There were four Initiates in 1942 and five in 1943 and the number of Brethren attending meetings ranged from twenty to thirty.

In July 1944, twelve years after the committee was set up to enquire into the formation of a Royal Arch Chapter, the following motion was proposed: "That the Lodge be asked to sanction the formation of a Royal Arch Chapter attached to the Lodge and to give an assurance that it will endorse the petition accordingly." The motion was carried and the Chapter was Consecrated on l7th May, 1945. This was a courageous decision to take in wartime. Since then the Chapter has flourished, membership being open to any Old Grammarian Master Mason, be he a member of Lodge No. 5129 or any other Lodge.

In 1945, the Lodge Secretary, W.Bro. Herbert Locking was made Provincial Grand Secretary. There was much rejoicing amongst the Brethren, and a motion congratulating him on the honour was carried unanimously. It ended thus:

"……….and express the hope that for many years to come he will have health to enjoy that Office, so that the members of Provincial Grand Lodge can know some of the inspiration and happiness that his care and conscientiousness have brought to this Lodge."

These words were tragically ironic. In May the Lodge learned of the death of its Treasurer, W.Bro. Harold Locking. Two months later Benno Pearlman died and four months after that came the death of Herbert Locking himself. Thus in six months the Lodge lost its three most prominent members. W.Bro. Kenneth Locking became the new Secretary and served the Lodge as faithfully as his brothers had done, until his death in 1958. There is no doubt that the Lodge owes a great debt of gratitude to the brothers Locking.

At the end of the war the months in recess were changed back to July and August, but the Lodge did not revert either to the old meeting time or to the wearing of evening dress. Meetings, as now, were held at 6.00 p.m. and dark morning dress remained the order of the day. During the course of the war sixteen Brethren served in the Armed Forces, whilst many others gave voluntary service as Home Guards, Air Raid Wardens, Fire Watchers or members of other voluntary organisations.

Peace [top of page]

Some interesting post-war events may now be mentioned. In 1947 we were Founder Members at the Constitution of the Federation of School Lodges. In 1952, after consultation with the Old Bridlingtonian Lodge No. 6843 and the Old Hymerian Lodge No. 6885 it was decided to hold a local Annual Joint School Lodge Meeting. A dispensation was obtained and the first meeting was held on May 3rd 1952, our Lodge acting as the first hosts. Since then these meetings have been well attended and much enjoyed. The Old Pocklingtonian Lodge No. 7867 subsequently joined us and each Lodge now acts as host once every four years.

In 1964 the Lodge resolved to form a Lodge Benevolent Fund. Four Trustees were appointed and a Management Committee was elected. The Brethren have supported this fund generously and on more than one occasion it has been possible to give timely help to Brethren, or their dependants, who were in need of assistance.

Probably the proudest day in the history of the Lodge occurred in October 1966 when we had the honour to be the hosts for the nineteenth Annual Festival of the Federation of School Lodges. This Emergency Meeting was held at the Grammar School. It was graced by the presence of the Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master, the Most Honourable the Marquess of Zetland, the Worshipful Deputy Provincial Grand Master, Sir Charles Vernon Fitton P.G.D., the Worshipful Assistant Grand Master, Wilfred Arthur Gibson P.G.D., and a large number of Grand and Provincial Grand Officers.

The Vice President (and acting President) of the Federation of School Lodges, W.Bro. Charles Henry Johnson P.P.G. Treas., accompanied by distinguished Visiting Brethren representing the Federation, was received and admitted in due form. We were all very proud that a member of this Lodge should hold this high office. A lecture entitled "Three Phases of Masonic History" was then delivered by W.Bro. Harry Carr P.A.G.D.C., the Secretary and Editor of the QuatuorCoronati Lodge No. 2076. Forty-five Federated School Lodges were represented and there was a total attendance of two hundred and fifty. The meeting at the School was followed by a banquet at the Guildhall, which set the seal on a great day. The Master of the Lodge at that time was W.Bro. F.L De Boer. He served on the Management Committee of the Federation from 1964 to 1967, was Chairman from 1972 to 1974 and has been the Treasurer since 1978. The Brethren of the Lodge have also continued to support the Federation and a goodly number travel each year to its Annual Festival.

Having listed some of the more interesting events in the history of the Lodge, we must now paint a broader picture.

Although the Masonic Hall in Park Street was repaired and reconstructed the Lodge has remained at Dagger Lane since 1941 except for two interludes. The first was in 1958 when we met at Park Street from May to October whilst the Temple at Dagger Lane was repaired and re-painted. The second, longer interlude, was from April 1977 to December 1978, when the Dagger Lane premises were being extensively enlarged and improved. During this period we met once at Park Street, twice at the Masonic Hall in Beverley and thirteen times at the Masonic Hall in Sutton.

Into the 21st Century.... [top of page]

As we enter the 21st century the Lodge is fortunate to be experiencing an upsurge of interest in membership and is attracting members who have not been Old Boys or Masters of the school.

FLOREAT NOSTRA SCHOLA!