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Special Meeting of Lodge 357 (EC
The installation meeting of this lodge was held in February, 1876 at the University Masonic Hall, Oxford. Bro. Brown-Cave PM presided at the opening and raised8 brethren.
At three o'clock the master, Bro. the Rev Pickard, presided and raised two brethren in which he was assisted by Bro. Prince Leopold SW (youngest son of Queen Victoria). This was his mother lodge joining while at Christ Church College and proposed by his brother,Albert Edward, Prince of Wales master at that time and later King. He would become PGM of Oxfordshire shortly after serving until his death in 1884 at only 30 due to haemophilia. After this, the ceremony of installation was performed by Bro. Pickard. Among the distinguished brethren present were the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot, Lord De' Tabley, Lord Methuen, Colonel Burdettand various others.
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Bro. Prince Leopold was attended by the Controller of his Household, Bro. Collins CB, and his Equerry-in-waiting, the Hon. Alex Yorke. The Immediate Past Master presented Prince Leopold to the Master to receive at his hands the benefit of installation. The Master then duly installed him, in the presence of a board of installed Masters, numbering 36 brethren. The Prince showed his proficiency as a student of Freemasonry and invested his officers for the year including Reginald Bird, Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Oxford (VicePrincipal of Magdalen College) as Treasurer and J. C. Bodley of Balliol College as Senior Secretary.
Hearty good wishes were expressed by Lord Methuen from Wiltshire; by Lord Shrewsbury from Staffordshire, by Colonel Campbell of Blythswood from Renfrewshire (actually PGM of Renfrewshire East and in 1885 the Grand Master Mason of Scotland) and by Bro. Mclntyre QC, from Grand Lodge (London).
Due to his blood condition, he was unable to pursue a military career but he maintained an honorary association. From 1881 served as the first Colonel-in-Chief of the Seaforth Highlanders who paraded at his funeral.
Mainly taken from The Freemason newspaper in 1876.
