Kitchener Lodge No.3402(EC

The lodge which was named after Bro. Lord Kitchener, now meets in Dhekelia Garrsion, Cypress. Its Roll of Honour is:

Oscar James Evans Welsh Guards KIA in Gallipoli, Turkey 1916 Frederick G. Hughes Gordon Highlanders KIA France, 1915 Edward Baddeley TD Lancs Fusiliers KIA in Gallipoli, Turkey 1915 Francis D. Irvine Australian Inf Shot by sniper, Gallipoli 1915 John Montgomery Gordon Highlanders KIA Ypres, Belgium 1914 William Pritchard Surgeon, RAMC Died of wounds, buried at sea.

Oscar Fitzgerald AGC Died on sinking of HMS Hampshire

William H. Crouch 7th Dragoon Gds Recorded as ‘died’ in Cairo Fergus H. Reid RA KIA Festubert, France Samuel Bryce 1st Dragoon Gds Died of wounds, Pas de Calais, France

One brother above, Oscar Arthur Gerald Fitzgerald, was the son of Sir Charles Fitzgerald. He was educated at Wellington College then commissioned into the Indian Staff Corps in 1895. He was gazetted into the 18th K.G.O. Lancers two years later.

In 1906, he was initiated into Kitchener Lodge No. 2998 in India where Bro. Lord Kitchener was a founder. Both men appear on the roll of honour of that lodge which also has two VC winners—Bros. Maj. Herbert Carter and Capt. Douglas Reynolds.

In 1909 it was the consensus of military Freemasons in Egypt that that the time was right for the formation of a lodge for military and naval brethren in Egypt which would operate under the English Constitution. The (then) Field Marshall Kitchener had affirmed a request to use his title by telegram using one word –

“Certainly” and Lord Kitchener Lodge No. 3402 was constituted and consecrated by District Grand Lodge of Egypt and Sudan on 17th November 1909.

Bro. FitzGerald (Kitchener Lodge 2998, Simla and McMahon Lodge, Quetta) joined Lord Kitchener Lodge No. 3402 on 18th September 1912. Major Bro. Oswald FitzGerald PDG Stwd. was Junior Warden of Kitchener Lodge in 1912 and Worshipful Master in 1913. He was one of four known Freemasons in Kitchener's party who perished on the HMS Hampshire (Kitchener, Fitzgerald, Robertson and Surguy).

FitzGerald and Lord Kitchener were lost when HMS Hampshire struck a German mine with the loss of 737 lives. Oswald FitzGerald's body was one of the few recovered and only one of two, of around 100, that were not buried in the mass grave at Lyness Royal Navy Cemetery, Orkney.

The body of Bro. Fitzgerald was taken to Inverness and then transferred to London for burial at the Eastbourne (Ocklynge) Cemetery in Sussex with a stone deigned by Charles Rennie MacIntosh.