9 minute read
The Savage Club Chapter
Left to right: Theo, James, Stephen, Paul and Tom
ARTS & THE CRAFT
Named after a notorious 18th-century poet, the Savage Club Chapter has revived a timehonoured ritual and is seeing a surge of interest
WORDS PETER WATTS PORTRAITS ALUN CALLENDER
hroughout the last decade, the Savage Club Chapter No. 2190 has built on its considerable heritage and grown to a vibrant active membership of around 40, most of whom are young professionals. They have their own version of the Royal Arch Ritual (known as ‘Savage Ritual’) and have had to hold extra meetings every year to manage demand from those wishing to be exalted into the Chapter. We spoke to some of the members involved to get a sense of what has helped make the Chapter such a success.
THE HISTORY
Paul Grier Scribe E ‘The Savage Club Chapter is attached to the Savage Club Lodge, which was formed off the back of a private members’ club called the Savage Club. This is named after the infamous 18th-century poet, Richard Savage, who was convicted of murder and died in prison of liver failure. The club was founded in 1857 and was famed for its star-studded charity balls at the Royal Albert Hall. It was started by gentlemen who felt that they weren’t posh enough to get into the Garrick Club, and remains one of the last Bohemian clubs with members drawn from six categories: art, drama, music, literature, law and science.
‘The Lodge was founded in the 1880s on the recommendation of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, who was then Grand Master and a member of the club. The Chapter itself was consecrated in 1891. We have had members of some eminence over the years, such as the philanthropist Sir Henry Wellcome, who was First Principal of the Chapter in 1900 and whose Past Principal’s jewel we still possess. There is no requirement for members of the Lodge or Chapter to be members of the club – they are independent – but we try to stick to the original six categories of club membership. The Chapter now meets in the City at Bakers’ Hall, and we tend to go to the club after dinner for drinks.
‘One prominent member of the Chapter was Bernard E Jones, who was also a member of the club, and who was exalted in the Savage Club Chapter in 1913 and installed as First Principal in 1925. He wrote the Freemasons’ Book of the Royal Arch in 1957, which is still generally held to be the definitive explanation of the origin, rise and development of Royal Arch Freemasonry, and which he dedicated to the Savage Club Chapter.
‘I was exalted in the Chapter in 2004 and took over as Scribe E in 2012. It’s fair to say that the Chapter had been struggling for some time; a few of us had been fortunate to be involved in several lodge rescues – specifically the Lodge of Faithful Service and Kensington Lodge – and we were able to bring our experience of those projects to the Chapter. We changed the meeting to a more convenient day and time, transformed the overall cost and dining structure and almost immediately started attracting new candidates.’
THE RENEWAL
Tom Milner MEZ ‘This was a dying unit. They were only getting a new member every few years and met at 11am on a Thursday as they wanted to keep evenings free in the slightly naive belief that this would attract actors and musicians who would be otherwise engaged later in the day. It was all very inconvenient for the young professionals and recent graduates who were the Chapter’s target market.
‘Paul became Scribe E and started to bring in younger people by moving meetings to a work-friendly time on Friday evening and finding a venue that made it cheaper to dine in London. The volume of new members has accelerated so we have now added a new meeting every year and have a long waiting list.
‘We have a ritual that is unique to the Chapter. It had been rediscovered in the Chapter archive in the mid-2000s, and had seemingly been approved for use many decades previously but had never been brought into use. We read it, and the consensus was we should move towards it. It doesn’t change anything about the underlying Royal Arch story or the message it imparts, and so after updating it to make sure it incorporated the recent changes required by Supreme Grand Chapter, we confirmed with the Committee of General Purposes that it was still okay to use. It tells the story in a more logical, clearer way but without dumbing down. This allows you to appreciate the candidate’s involvement and his reaction because the story is so much easier to follow. It’s a shorter, more efficient and more engaging experience and we are sure it is part of what has kept people coming back.’
Haggai Stephen Henderson explains the ceremony and storytelling of the Savage Ritual
THE RITUAL
Oliver Linch Chairman, Savage Club Chapter of Instruction ‘We’d been thinking of changing our ritual for a few years, and then in the archive we stumbled
across the Savage Club Chapter Royal Arch Ritual that Reverend Stanley Conway-Lee and other members had produced in the 1970s. The most significant difference is that in other rituals the narrative and the performance aspect are split, which means the story essentially gets run twice, whereas this version has simultaneous acting and narration. This means there is less coming and going and it creates more roles for other participants.
‘It’s shorter and more fun to participate in, but without losing any of the gravitas of the ceremony and its underlying story, and we like to think it irons out some of the creases. We hope this keeps the character of the story and that it is still clearly recognisable to anyone in the Royal Arch, but is a little more engaging.
‘The new ritual has played a role in the Chapter’s growth and people are intrigued by it, and we’d certainly like other people to use it. We have a Chapter of Instruction and in future it would be lovely to think there are people up and down the country – and even around the world – using Savage Ritual.’
THE PRINCIPAL
Stephen Henderson Haggai ‘Everything that takes place in Savage Ritual is the same as in the more mainstream rituals, but we like to think in a more logical order. It is about a significant discovery in a vault, and this is enacted in a dramatic form rather than just spoken about figuratively. When I came into the Royal Arch in the late 1980s, I thoroughly enjoyed the ceremony, but it was very serious and involved a rather daunting amount of ritual for relatively few participants to learn. With Savage Ritual, this has been slightly slimmed down and the events have been moved around. It is much better at telling an interesting story and captures the imagination more forcefully.
‘We are very conscious that the ceremony contains a serious message, and there are more people involved in the storytelling, which can make it even more meaningful. There is also a piece of ritual at the end in the form of an exhortation that sums up what the Chapter is about and what we hope to achieve by being members. It’s a lovely way to end the meeting because it sort of says, “this is what the Royal Arch (and indeed Freemasonry as a whole) is all about, let’s now go into the world and do the good things it tells us to do”. It’s a nice message to end the meeting on and very valuable, finishing things with a warm glow.’
THE EXALTEE
Theo M Assistant Sojourner ‘One of the great things as an exaltee is that you are immersed in the story the ritual is telling. You are the subject of that story and it’s more than lines of ritual going back and forth. It’s almost a microtheatre production – the story is told and you act out parts with the members taking you through. It allows you to identify with the story and the ritual.
‘There’s a lot of rhetoric and not much action in some rituals, so afterwards you have to try and work out what actually happened. We try to recreate our ritual in a simple and memorable way.
‘Relative to other masonic rituals, it’s by far one of my favourites because you are so immersed in it. As an officer in the Chapter, every time you take part you experience it in a slightly different role. You can relive the experience, giving you an opportunity to reflect on the story and the messages.’
THE FOSSIL
James Long ADC; MEZ (1988) ‘The Savage Club Chapter was enormous fun to belong to when I was exalted in 1980. It reminded me of the quote “you don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps”, as it had a number of members who were really quite barking. Dining (around a single oval table at St Stephen’s Club in Westminster) seemed to me then to be the pinnacle of rather eccentric, urbane companionship. As befitted a Chapter with several members from the
musical and acting world, the fun was boundless off-stage, but, once the curtain went up, the entire focus was on delivering a beautiful, thoughtful and uplifting ceremony for candidates. The Chapter had several excellent ritualists who were passionate about the Royal Arch, and hence discussions about the new ritual, as it was being developed, were intense.
‘It makes an old member proud to see that our new and young generation of Companions have so naturally and perfectly captured the unique spirit of the Chapter in its heyday. They have devoted so much time and energy to perfecting our rediscovered Savage Ritual and to performing it – seemingly without effort. The Chapter is again restored to its place as a showcase both for the Royal Arch, in all its richness, and for the sheer joy of companionship at its quintessential, Savage best.’
THE SUPREME GRAND CHAPTER
Russell Race Second Grand Principal ‘The Savage Club Chapter has a distinguished and long history. I have been fortunate enough to visit on several occasions and enjoyed it immensely. I have always come away deeply impressed by the youthful enthusiasm and companionship of its members, as well as the dramatic presentation of their unique ritual.’
The Savage Club Chapter robes, regalia and sceptres used in the ritual
