12 minute read
Provincial profile
Spotlight on Bedfordshire
In the first of our series of Provincial guides, we reveal the causes, clubs and characters of Bedfordshire Freemasonry
COMPILED BY PROVINCIAL COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER DEAN O’CONNELL
Right, clockwise: Go Dharmic, Martin Foss Award, Magpas Air Ambulance, Sister Nicola Lane with a TLC bear
WHO’S WHO IN THE PROVINCE
Provincial Grand Master
Anthony Henderson
Deputy Provincial Grand Master
Nicholas Edwards
Assistant Provincial Grand Master
Hugh Love
Provincial Grand Secretary
Clive Walsh
Famous brothers past Arthur Oliver Villiers Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill (19 Feb 1869-7 Jul 1935) served as Governor of Madras from October 1900 to February 1906, and as acting Viceroy of India from April to December 1904. He was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Bedfordshire in 1900 and as District Grand Master of Madras from 1901 to 1906. He served as Pro Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1908 until his death in 1935.
Clubs and societies The Bedfordshire Light Blues Club was established in 2016 as a forum for new and younger members to meet and socialise. There are no membership or subscription fees as the club wants no barriers to participation.
The Beda Chapter Widows Sons has a membership of 43, of which 25 are Freemasons and the remainder are associate members. Despite the lack of opportunity to meet this year, they have raised more than £5,000 for charity.
The Bedfordshire Masonic Sports Association has sections for shooting, fishing, golf, bowls and walking football. Everyone is welcome, of all abilities, Freemasons and non-Freemasons alike.
Above and beyond award Despite being officially retired, Tony Green, Provincial Grand Almoner, has been at the forefront of COVID-19 planning for Bedfordshire. ‘In March 2020 I was asked if I would assist in the combined emergency response for the COVID-19 crisis,’ says Tony. ‘I was asked to set up and manage a temporary mortuary facility for the county. Between the end of March and the beginning of July 2020, we looked after 257 deceased on behalf of their families. Among that number were Freemasons and family members of Freemasons from the Province. In November 2020, I also set up three rapid testing centres for COVID-19.’
A warm welcome to… Bailey Boulding was initiated into Sir William Harpur Lodge on 12 March 2020. He had always been curious about Freemasonry, its symbolism and the idea of being a better version of yourself. Due to COVID-19 he had only attended one meeting but it made quite an impact. ‘My initiation was fuelled by nerves and the fear of the unknown. What followed was an experience unmatched by anything I had encountered before.’
Clockwise from top left: Arthur Oliver Villiers Russell, Bedfordshire Light Blues Club, The Beda Chapter Widows Sons, Bedfordshire Masonic Sports Association, Bedfordshire Scouts facility, gavels from Roger De Somery Lodge, Bedfordshire Centenary Fishing Lodge, Bailey Boulding
Specialist lodges in the Province Cumberland Lodge applied to join the university scheme and became a university lodge in 2018 – the same year that it celebrated its centenary. Since joining the scheme, membership has increased by 20 and many members are under 30 years of age.
The Bedfordshire Centenary Fishing Lodge The Masonic Fishing Charity (MTSFC) was formed in 1998, and now has more than 37 Provinces operating branches throughout the UK. The Bedfordshire Branch was formed in late 2015 and caters for organisations and schools in Bedfordshire that are working with children and young adults with special needs. Children are taken for a day’s fishing and countryside experience. The charity required a themed masonic lodge dedicated to fishing and the work it does. Bedfordshire Centenary Lodge, No. 9151, was actively considering handing in its warrant, but members agreed to change the name to The Bedfordshire Centenary Fishing Lodge, No. 9151, serving both needs.
Roger De Somery – Rugby Roger De Somery Lodge, No. 6488, was consecrated in 1947, but numbers declined to the point where the lodge was struggling to survive. Luckily, four rugby-mad Bedfordshire Freemasons hatched a plan to form a themed lodge, and gathered support from around 30 prospective members. They voted to save the lodge and adopt both the rugby union theme and the new members. The plan was for them to join at the next meeting in 2020, but the pandemic put a halt to that. When the meeting eventually happens, they intend to apply to UGLE to become the Roger de Somery Rugby Union Lodge, No. 6488 (or similar).
Caring for the community The Scouts Activity Centre, used by the Bedfordshire Scouts in Bromham, had accommodation facilities that were no longer fit for purpose, but they didn’t have the funds to replace them. Bedfordshire Freemasons raised £500,000 to design, construct and pay for a 48-bed state-ofthe-art lodge. This new building will ensure that the facility can be used and enjoyed by young people for many years to come. Following a grant from the Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ charity), 10 organisations have been supported in Bedfordshire:
Leighton Linslade Homeless Shelter
£1,000
SERV Herts & Beds
Blood Bikes £1,000
Dine With Us on
the Streets £1,500 Go Dharmic £1,500 Music 24 £500
Preen Biggleswade
£1,000 Luton Foodbank £1,000
Leighton Linslade
Helpers £1,000
Hospice at Home
Volunteers £500
Signposts – Luton
£1,000
Food banks that have benefitted from the MCF grant:
Leighton Linslade
Food bank £500
Dunstable Food bank
£1,000
Bedford Food bank
£1,000 Need Food bank £1,000 Lodges donated £1,250 to the Need Project.
Women’s Refuges
In addition to the £5,000 they donated to Bedfordshire Women’s Refuges in May 2020, a grant of £5,000 from the MCF in September was used to purchase 25 ‘love2shop’ gift cards for each of the five women’s refuges, together with a supply of TLC bears for the children.
Martin Foss Award
The annual award named after the late Martin Foss, Past Provincial Grand Master for Bedfordshire and a former surgeon, was made to a final-year student in nursing and midwifery who has made the greatest contribution to the Faculty of Health and Social Science.
Community Wanderbus
Bedfordshire Freemasons donated £5,000 to help purchase a community bus to serve residents of 12 villages situated in central Bedfordshire.
Hospitals
Hospitals at Luton and Bedford have long been the focus of fundraising efforts by Bedfordshire lodges. TLC bears are delivered regularly (more than 29,000 so far) along with special deliveries at Christmas and Easter.
Luton Town FC Community Trust
An initial grant of £5,000 was made following the success of the walking football scheme, and Bedfordshire agreed to make an annual donation of £500 to the Community Trust.
PSA testing
In 2019, two days were organised where blood tests were carried out to find indications of prostate cancer. From 139 tests, 10 people were identified as needing further investigation and, of those, two have had operations while two others have undergone alternative treatments.
Schools
Balliol Primary School needed more space, so Bedfordshire Mark Master Masons funded an outdoor classroom and play area. Round Green Pre-School in Luton required a new fence and the Bedfordshire team was pleased to help.
Air Ambulance
Bedfordshire is covered by East Anglian Air Ambulance and Magpas. In March 2020, the Trustees of the Provincial Charity Fund awarded £3,935 to provide a oneyear supply of ventilator hoses and filters for cardiac arrest patients. A further £2,500 was presented to both EAAA and Magpas. This is being matched by the MCF for a total of £10,000.
Fundraising Freemasons
With a target of £1 million, 2021 marks the launch of Bedfordshire’s 2026 Festival in support of the MCF.
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
Director of Communications and Marketing Michelle Worvell has an ‘outsider looking in’ approach, which means she’s not afraid to push the boundaries when it comes to opening up Freemasonry to the wider public
WORDS PETER WATTS PORTRAITS ALUN CALLENDER
When Michelle Worvell was overseeing an expanded Open House event at Freemasons’ Hall in September 2019, she found it completely natural to take a more hands-on approach. Michelle had arrived in March 2019 as the UGLE’s bustling new Director of Communications and Marketing and one of her first initiatives was to get the organisation more heavily involved in Open House than previous years. She particularly wanted to make the event more family friendly, recognising this would be an important way to attract visitors while cementing positive perceptions of Freemasonry at an early age.
So, when Michelle saw a small boy outside, accompanied by a more enthusiastic parent but reluctant to visit the building himself, she made it her business to keep him happy. Michelle escorted the boy around the building with his mother, introduced them to the children’s trail, helped locate hidden features in the stained glass windows and showed them where to get plastic bricks to make a model of a dragon.
‘He’d been dragging his heels about coming in but was one of the last people out of the building,’ says Michelle, still thrilled at the reaction. ‘I’ve got a six-year-old and I know what they expect. So when I organised Open House, I created things for children to do. We made it fun and that attracted families through the door. We went from 3,000 visitors the previous year to 9,000 over the weekend and were the second most popular attraction in London.’
The incident illustrates the enthusiasm and enterprise that Michelle has brought to the role since she joined UGLE, as she strives to change negative perceptions of Freemasonry, spread positive stories and improve communication among members.
Michelle’s background had been in the insurance and financial industries, but when she saw an advertisement for the job at UGLE, she was intrigued, knowing little about Freemasonry. After doing some research, she realised that UGLE Chief Executive Dr David Staples was starting to fight back against Freemasonry’s negative image but she felt it should go further still.
‘I could see an opportunity to move into positive proactive messaging,’ she says. ‘I noticed there was
Michelle has been opening up Freemasonry to families, children and a new audience
FMT took all COVID-19 social distancing, PPE and safety precautions for this shoot
little coverage in the press. Lots of people were talking about Freemasonry but not about what Freemasons were saying themselves. There was no move to change perceptions and build relationships with journalists.
‘The scale of the problem was scary. It would be like turning an oil tanker. But I have passion and I wasn’t going to take the job unless I could make a diff erence. I recognised there was massive potential, and that David really wanted to change things but needed a communications team that could work closely with him.’
To turn that tanker around, Michelle rebuilt her team, promoting from within and recruiting externally to broaden the department’s skillset. Responsibilities are broad, covering corporate communications, marketing, events, PR, internal and membership communications and website and social media.
Michelle realised she had several assets she could utilise, including the work of the Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ charity), FMT, the Museum of Freemasonry and the relationships some of the Provinces had established with local newspapers. Working directly with the Provinces to leverage those connections proved to be a successful approach.
‘In January 2020, we had a forum for Provincial Communication Offi cers, getting them together so they could network and share best practice,’ she says. ‘We created a brochure and allowed the Provinces to adapt it locally. They can use local photos, local quotes and their own crest and contact details so there will be 48 Provincial versions that give the same message to the public. We are doing the same with press releases. We can also take ideas from the Provinces such as #TimeToToast, which got us trending on Twitter for the fi rst time.’
Michelle’s plans for 2020 were disrupted by the pandemic, which made communication more important than ever. Contacting members doubled, and the First Rising email newsletter was created to correspond directly with them. This was sent every three weeks to 157,000 members and had an excellent rate of readership.
The charitable work carried out by MCF and Provincial charities during the pandemic provided a valuable source of positive news. The team got hundreds of stories about how Freemasonry was supporting those aff ected by COVID-19 published in local and national press. These articles were seen by more than 53 million people.
As the situation improved over the summer, Freemasons’ Hall was able to take part in Open House 2020 and was again the second most popular attraction in London, with a further 5,000 people watching virtual tours.
An organ recital at Freemasons’ Hall received almost 40,000 views on YouTube, while a projection of poppies that lit up Freemasons’ Hall to mark Remembrance Day became yet another viral hit. The team also maintained strong internal communications so UGLE staff could stay connected as they worked remotely.
‘We have had the largest number of enquiries ever of people interested in becoming Freemasons, as a result of the press we are getting about COVID-19,’ says Michelle. ‘We have achieved a lot in two years, especially given the pandemic and the fact we didn’t even have a basic structure when we started.’
There will be no slowing down in 2021, with a new external website being created. The PR blitz will continue, with UGLE following up on the positive stories created during the pandemic as Michelle builds on new relationships in the national press – ‘even The Guardian’, grins Michelle.
She is particularly pleased that a website revamp has already seen the UGLE page become the fi rst Google result when people search for ‘female Freemasons’.
As a woman and non-Freemason, Michelle is sometimes asked how she is able to represent Freemasonry. ‘My answer is that it is sometimes better to be outside looking in,’ she says. ‘I have become extremely passionate about Freemasonry. And I am a strong advocate of the Craft. I have access to expertise as I have Freemasons in my team but sometimes it takes a person from outside to push the boundaries. I hope people can see that my enthusiasm is infectious.’
Top to bottom: Time to Toast, The Guardian website covers the opening of the shop, Open House London at Freemasons’ Hall, UGLE’s new-look website
