Lodge 203, Airdrie

The charter of The Operative Lodge of Airdrie No.203 was granted on the 6th day of August 1799. The first time that an installed masters’ degree is mentioned is on 27th December, 1885 when Bro. Mitchell was given this honour. However, what is unique is the ceremony of an installed mark master normally conferred upon a First Principal of a chapter.

In 1888 the Grand Lodge of Scotland took away the right of the lodge to elect and install a Mark Master, but with the assistance of P.G.L. Grand Master Bro. Lieut. Col. J. Clark this was restored to the lodge. A second attempt was made to take this right away in 1923 but after a strong appeal by the lodge this was also resolved in the lodge’ s favour.

At the meeting of 14th During the eighteenth century, Mark Masonry had two degrees, Mark Man and Mark Master; they now are combined into one degree in Scottish Masonry but this is not the case in other countries, even if they differ from the old ones. The Mark Man Degree was reserved to Fellow Crafts and the Mark Master was exclusively for Master Masons.

In 1856, Grand Chapter decided to issue Charters for Mark Lodges. This time the Charters were confined to the working of the Mark Degree only, in effect they were setting up a Mark Lodge. From 1856 until 1900 some 42 Mark Charters were issue by the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland, the majority issued to England.

The other problem was that although Grand Lodge ‘banned’ the working of the Mark in 1800, many lodges still conferred it. For example, No. 8 in Edinburgh because they conferred before Grand Lodge was formed in 1736. Four years later, a committee of Grand Lodge and SGRAC was formed to review the situation and its outcome was to allow lodges to confer the Mark Degree. It also agreed a candidate applying to be admitted to the Royal Arch Degree, if he has received the Mark Degree in a regular Lodge of St John's Masonry, shall not be required to take it a second time in the chapter.

. Feb. 1940 it was reported that the lodge had again successfully defended the right in our charter to keep the office of mark master, although thanks were due to the master and the S.W. for moving an amendment, it was considered that the work done by Bro. William Blair Secretary in penning letters to about fifty Grand Officers and Committee members must have had some weight with the decision, and as such the lodges thanks were minuted. So the lodge continues today with the master of the lodge receiving the installed mark master as well!