Major Freeling Ross Lawrence DSO was the founding Inner Guard of the Old Wellingtonian Lodge.

Freeling and his brother Frederick were one of two pairs of brothers who founded the Lodge. They were both in the Beresford, and both went to Sandhurst.

Commissioned into the 14^th (King’s) Hussars in 1894, known as the Emperor’s Chambermaids for their taking of King Joseph’s silver chamber pot at the battle of Vitoria in 1813, Lawrence saw service in in the Niger Territories as part of the Illah and Siama Expeditions in 1898/9 during which he was Mentioned in Despatches and created a DSO. He served in the South African War as Regimental Adjutant and was present at the Relief of Ladysmith. Again ‘Mentioned’ in 1901, he is also mentioned in Lt Col Oatts’ history of the 14th Hussars for his rescue of Sgt Storer. He received the Queen’s Medal with nine clasps, and was promoted Brevet Major.  He was Brigade Major, 2^nd Cavalry Brigade in 1905, and appointed a General Staff Officer in 1913 for the 9th Division, Secunderabad.

He died on 9 March 1914, at Netley Hospital.

He was initiated in to Newcastle Lodge No 2097 in Natal, a function of his military career. On the petition he stated that he was a subscribing member of Wellesley Lodge No 1899 in Crowthorne, of which he was a past master, Lindley Lodge No 3133 (in South Africa) and Aldershot Army & Navy Lodge No 1971. He was an active Berkshire mason, being a PPSGD.

This link to Berkshire and Wellesley Lodge and to Aldershot Army & Navy Lodge was a common association amongst the early brethren, and an unsurprising one given Wellington’s location and associations.

Capt FG Lawrence, Adjutant 3rd South Wales Borderers (seated front row, on the ground)

In 1913 the Lodge installed its fifth Worshipful Deputy Master, Capt (later Lt Col) Frederick George Lawrence DSO of the South Wales Borderers, and at that time serving as an ‘Officer of the Company of Gentleman Cadets’ at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Born in 1874, he went to Wellington in 1887 a year after his brother Freeling Ross Lawrence (a fellow founding officer of the Lodge), and joined him in the Beresford.

He followed his brother to Sandhurst in 1892 before joining the 24^th Foot, the South Wales Borderers. Serving in South Africa he was Mentioned in Despatches in 1901 by future fellow Lodge member Lord Roberts, received the Queen’s and the King’s Medals, and was created a DSO by the King in 1902. He was Adjutant, 3^rd South Wales Borderers from 1902, promoted to Captain in 1906 and became an instructor at the Royal Military College from 1910. He served on the Western Front and was promoted Major in 1915, and Lieutenant Colonel in 1916.

He added the OBE and the Croix de Guerre from both Belgium and France to his DSO in 1919.

He retired in 1923 and was appointed Commanding Officer of the Wellington College OTC (today known as the CCF). He was an active OW and mason. He edited the Register, and was one of the driving forces behind the foundation of the Lodge, which he would serve for 35 years. He was known everyone in the Wellington Community as the Colonel.

Like his predecessor in the chair Purnell, he was initiated into Wellesley Lodge No 1899, and exalted into that lodge’s chapter, both of which met in Crowthorne and commemorated the Iron Duke. He received London Rank (now LGR) in 1930 and was made a DGSwdBr in 1937.

He died in 1944.

In what was to be the last year before the war, Lawrence oversaw the fifth and last year of what had a period of extraordinary activity, health, and growth for our young lodge prior to the Great War.

Why appoint a Deputy Worshipful Master?

Edward Kelly Purnell MBE was the fourth Worshipful Deputy Master, and Founding Secretary of the Old Wellingtonian Lodge.

‘Prang’ Purnell was a scholar, school master, and historian. He was named after his maternal grandfather Capt Edward Kelly who led the decisive charge of the Life Guards on the evening of June 17, 1815.

He went to Wellington in 1861 where he earned his nickname but sadly the reasons for the moniker do not survive. He spent time in both the Lynedoch and the Combermere, and was made a College Prefect. He gained a scholarship to Magdalene College, Cambridge He spent four years in India as a tutor to the sons of Sir Salar Jung before returning to Wellington as an Assistant Master and the a Housemaster from 1884 first of the Wellesley and then what would on his retirement become the Picton. He also taught at a minor public school in Slough during the Great War and also served in the Ministry of Shipping. The value of his work there was recognized by the gift of the M.B.E., which was bestowed upon him in 1919.

In retirement he finished a noted history of Magdalene in 1904 that is still available today, as well as working on several noted manuscript collections and was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Purnell was initiated in to Wellesley Lodge No 1899 in Crowthorne, a lodge shared six other members with this Lodge: Philip Napier-Jones, Frederick Lawrence, Freeling Lawrence, Lord Dorchester, Joseph Bevir, and Vernon Bryant.

He was a strong supporter of Berkshire masonry, helping found Heather Lodge No 3131, and joining Berkshire Masters Lodge No 3684. His contribution to the Province was recognised with his being made Provincial Senior Grand Warden.  He also joined Arrow Lodge No 2240 and Bagshot Lodge No 4804.

He was the founding secretary of the OW Lodge from 1909 to 1919 (with the exception of his year in the chair). Never having been much of a lodge for oration (see Bye Law 6), it is telling that during the early years only two speeches are recorded in the Minutes – that of the Grand Master, and the vote of thanks to Purnell, noting “his unfailing tact, energy, and kindliness” a requirement of Lodge Secretaries through the ages. He was also a governor of the Royal Masonic School for Boys.

His year as Deputy Master was extraordinary in many ways, with his installation setting the tone: It was attended by Sir Edward Letchworth, an Honorary Member of the Lodge and the Grand Secretary, and the Grand Director of Ceremonies. The reason for this deputation was the raising of HH Prince Maurice of Battenberg, for which purpose the Grand Secretary took the chair, and the GDC took the office of Senior Deacon.

The minutes include a report from the Standing Committee at the end of the Purnell’s year, the busiest year in our history: the Lodge had witnessed eight meetings including 3 emergency meetings,  seven initiations, seven passings, and six raisings. At the close of the year there were 89 members, and the Lodge had joined Public Schools Charity Union.

As a footnote Purnell appointed his son and fellow Founder as a steward.  Much to the confusion of would be lodge historians. he was also called Edward Kelly Purnell. The younger had joined his father’s house at Wellington, and was tragically killed in an accident only two weeks after his father passed away.

© IWM (HU 118248)

Col Arthur James Vavasor Durell CB was the third Worshipful Deputy Master and the Founding Senior Deacon of the Lodge.

He was elected after the Senior Warden Major Pidcock-Henzell deferred the opportunity on account of imminent service overseas. Dispensation was required as Durell was the ruling master of the Lodge of Twelve Brothers in Southampton.

He was born in Cambridgeshire on 25 June 1871 to John Vavasor Durell and Ellen Annie née Carlyon. He was one of twelve siblings, suitably enough. His father was the Rector of Fulbourne, Cambridgeshire from 1868 to 1917. The Durrell family were actually an Oxford family, associated with the Oxford Canal Company, and the family home is now St Peter’s College.

An OW from the Blucher, Durell had been commissioned into the Royal Norfolks, before transferring to the Army Pay Dept when the call went out for skilled officers to staff this new service. Durrell was one of 30 members of the Lodge to have served in the South African War. He was Mentioned in Despatches and decorated with the Queen’s and King’s medals both with three clasps. He went on to be promoted to full Colonel and to serve as Chief Paymaster at the War Office and Officer in Charge of Records in 1916. He was made a CB in 1917.

He distinguished himself in this new branch of the Army, where pay, unlike that of Fellowcrafts, had been a less ordered and regular affair. He clearly thrived and even went on to write a seminal work on Parliamentary Accounts.

His masonry echoes his military career: he was initiated in to St Georges Lodge No 2537 which met in Pinelands in southern Africa, and later joined Prince Alfred Lodge No 956 in Natal (a lodge he shared with William Dalgety, the first WDM). He later joined St Marks Lodge No 857 in London, and then the Lodge of Twelve Brothers No 785 in Southampton.

Durell presided over a well attended meeting at College in July 1912 at which he initiated two new members. The first of these was Alfred Stanfield, an OW and Assistant Master at College, appropriately enough for the Wellington meeting . The second was His Highness Prince Maurice of Battenberg, the fortieth and youngest grandson of Queen Victoria, aged just 20, initiated by special dispensation due to his being under 21. Battenburg went on to join the Lodge of Twelve Brothers in Southampton, and also became its Master, perhaps on the recommendation of the man that initiated him?

As a tragic postscript to Durell’s year and a indication of the brutal cost of the coming war in Europe, three of the new members of the Lodge from his year alone would lay down their lives for King and Country: Battenberg, Stanfield and Stephenson.

Durrell died on 1 July 1945 at his home in Cambridge.

The Lodge was honoured by the Grand Master HRH the Duke of Connaught & Strathearn’s acceptance of the office of first Worshipful Master of the Lodge. The Grand Master was the President of Wellington and the son of the driving forces behind the schools foundation.

The Grand Master was unanimously re-elected in subsequent years and went on to hold the office until his death in 1942, and was pleased to appoint Worshipful Deputy Masters to rule the Lodge on his behalf.

Those 32 years comprise one of the longest single periods of office held by any mason in a private lodge, a feat the Grand Master himself outstripped in 3 instances: in his ruling of his mother Lodge, the Prince of Wales’s Lodge for 39 years; the 44 years he ruled Aldershot Army & Navy Lodge No 1971; and his longest reign, the 53 years he ruled over the London Irish Rifles Lodge No 2312.

The Grand Master had been initiated into the Prince of Wales’s Lodge No 259 in 1874, the first of many strong connections between ‘259’ and the Old Wellingtonian Lodge which have continued to this day.

The Duke of Connaught was the third son and seventh child of Queen Victoria. He was born at Buckingham Palace and educated at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich before being commissioned into the Royal Engineers. He later served with the Royal Artillery before commanding his father’s regiment, the Rifle Brigade.

The Duke was closely associated with the Duke of Wellington. He was born on Wellington’s 81^st birthday, named after the Iron Duke, and was also one of Wellington’s godchildren. The Duke of Connaught & Strathearn was only 2 years old when Wellington died and was reported to have been terribly upset by the news. It is said that he kept repeating that “the Duke of Wellikon is Arta’s godpapa.”

The First of May by Winterhalter shows  the Duke of Wellington presenting Queen Victoria with a casket to mark the Duke of Connaught’s christening hangs at Windsor, and a copy by Souter hangs in Old Hall at Wellington. A copy of the Souter copy was presented to the present day Grand Master in 1992 on the occasion of the Lodge hosting the PSLC Festival.

The Duke of Connaught became an active member of many lodges. In addition to those noted above, he was a member of Royal Alpha Lodge No 16, of which he was Master in 1881; Navy Lodge No 2612; Jubilee Masters’ Lodge No 2712; Nil Sine Labore Lodge No 2736; Household Brigade Lodge No 2614; and the Royal Colonial Institute Lodge No 3556.

When he accepted the permanent mastership of our Lodge in 1909 The Freemason’s Chronicle noted that this was only the fourth Lodge to be so honoured, after Aldershot Army & Navy, Household Brigade and Nil Sine Labore.

He became President of Wellington in 1901, a post he also held until his death some 41 years later. The Duke’s holding of the three offices of Worshipful Master, Grand Master and President of College would be repeated again a hundred years later by the Duke of Kent.

The Duke of Connaught & Strathearn’s son Prince Arthur also joined the Lodge.

The second Worshipful Deputy Master was described by the London Times in his obituary as “a well-known man of letters”.^[1]

James Beresford Atlay was born in 1860, the son of a vicar later to become Bishop of Hereford who was a friend of Benson, Wellington’s first Master, one a small group of trusted confidents who visited the Master’s Lodge in Benson’s early years.^[2]

Atlay went to Wellington in 1872, and was appropriately enough in the Beresford. He was in the same year as fellow Lodge members Colonel George Onslow, Maj Edward Kelaart, and the wonderfully named Rev Manley Power, both the latter being fellow East Block boys from the Blucher.

James Atlay was installed in November 1910, having been the Founding Senior Warden of the Lodge.

He had much in common with his predecessor as Deputy Master: he too was made Head of College, in this case in 1878, he also gained a first XV cap (where he is shown in the above image), and he also went up to Oxford, winning an open scholarship to Oriel (having also won a scholarship place at New College), taking a First in Modern History in 1883. Atlay was called to the Bar in 1887, a member of Lincolns Inn, and appointed Registrar of the Diocese of Hereford in 1888.

Given this his profession as a barrister it is unsurprising that he was initiated in to a legal lodge, the Midland and Oxford Bar Lodge No 2716, which later merged with the South Eastern Bar Lodge No 4332, a ‘cousin’ of the OW Lodge. Sadly the combined lodge no longer exists. He also joined the Public Schools Chapter, and was an advocate of Royal Arch in general and this chapter in particular.

He was a member of the Garrick, the Athenaeum and the New University.

His great contribution lay in legal and biographical literature of which the best known were “The Trial of Lord Cochrane” (published in 1897), “Famous Trials of the 19^th Century” (1899), and the “Lives of the Victorian Chancellors”. With a nod to his time up at Oxford he also wrote the authorised biography of Sir Henry Acland (of the circle of Liddell and Ruskin), and the authorised biography of Bishop Wilberforce. This was his last work, completed in the year before his death in 1912.

Combining his two professional past times Atlay also edited the two standard books of the time on International Law by Hall and Wheaton, and he was a copious and “very useful contributor” to the Dictionary of National Biography. In 1910 he was made a Special Commissioner of income-tax.

Recalling the man in a letter to the Times on the day of his funeral, a friend wrote that he had “a strong bent towards serious history, and his wide reading and retentive memory, his quick grasp of facts, and his power of marshalling them, all fitted him, as did his sane outlook on life, to make his mark as an historian…a man of much social charm, of humour, and of a warm and kindly nature”^[3].

A gentleman who lived respected and died regretted.

It is normal practice when either the Grand Master or a Prince of the Royal Blood is the ruling master of a lodge to appoint a Worshipful Deputy Master.  Both these conditions applied to the Old Wellingtonian Lodge at its foundation as the Grand Master HRH The Duke of Connaught & Strathearn KG had graciously accepted the office of Worshipful Master.

The Grand Master appointed a retired army officer, Colonel Reginald William Dalgety CB to be his first Worshipful Deputy Master.

Col William Dalgety was an officer in the York & Lancaster Regiment, having joined its precursor the 65^th Foot (the 2^nd Yorkshire North Riding Battalion) in 1867 as an Ensign by purchase, and seen action in South Africa and notably in the Soudan at the battles of El-Teb in 1884 where he was ‘slightly’ wounded, and again at Tamai, where he was ‘severely’ wounded, leading from the front and, according to General Graham, showing the “utmost gallantry” and rallying his men in the midst of desperate hand-to-hand fighting. Coincidentally, the Grand Master and Lord Methuen, both future fellow lodge members, were also present at El Teb.

For the record, and translating the chronic understatement typical of the time, ‘slightly’ wounded meant a bullet wound to the side and a spear thrust to the head. Severely wounded meant “two terrific sword cuts to the left hand” which resulted in the loss of the use of the arm, and a pension of £200. In today’s terms that is approximately £12,000 (as calculated by the National Archives Currency Converter), rather a poor return for a limb.^[1]

Dalgety recovered from his wounds and went on to command the 2^nd Battalion in 1888, and on  2 October 1888 received new regimental colours from the Duke of Cornwall & York (later George V), whilst stationed in Trinidad. He was made an officer of the Order of the Bath for his services in 1893. The regiment he served took its name not from the cities or counties in its title, but from the Duchies of York and Lancaster from whose lands it had traditional drawn its men, in South Yorkshire.

Dalgety was the first pupil to arrive at Wellington when the first term started on 20 January 1859^[2], having previously been at Aldenham. He joined the Beresford & Blucher, a joint house in those early days. He was in the XV, earning a cap, and was made Head of College in 1862, so his selection as the first Worshipful Deputy Master had fine historical resonance.

He went on to Merton College Oxford, taking his degree in 1867, before joining the Army.

Dalgety had been initiated into Lodge Chota Nagpore No 1352 in Bengal, and at the consecration was a subscribing member of Easterford Lodge No 2342, Grafton Lodge No 2347, and a past master of Natalia Lodge No 1665, a lodge in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, in what is today South Africa.

He died on 25 March 1925.

Forty-nine Old Wellingtonians and Governors petitioned the United Grand Lodge to create the Lodge, an unusually high number for a private lodge. Forty-eight signed the petitions, of which there were seven petitions due to the need to have different documents sent around the Empire. The only founder not to actually sign was the Duke of Connaught & Strathearn, the Grand Master. No one seems to have objected.

The eldest was a retired army officer of 64 and the youngest was a 23 year old recently qualified solicitor in his family’s firm, only a few years out of Wellington. There were also three family connections, two pairs of brothers and a father and son.

Of the forty-nine, thirty-six served in the armed forces either as their chosen profession, or when called upon. Those thirty-six spanned the breadth of the rank and file, and included a Field Marshal, a Major General, four Brigadiers, six Colonels, six Lieutenant Colonels, nine Majors, five Captains, four Subalterns, a Surgeon Lieutenant, and a Corporal. Only one did not serve in the Army, being a Royal Marine.  In fact twenty-two were career soldiers, the balance being volunteers who served when called upon.

On the petition, the Earl of Derby gave his profession as “Peer”, and the Duke of Connaught & Strathearn elected to give “Field Marshal” from the options available to him. The Law accounted for the next greatest proportion, nine: seven barristers and two solicitors, and a retired army officer who was a Justice of the Peace for good measure. There were four doctors, three school masters, a farmer and two planters, two civil servants, and a clerk in holy orders. Three were in trade: a brewery manager, a merchant, and the managing director of Chubbs, the lock makers. Only one claimed to be a gentleman, emphatically stating ‘none’ when asked his profession or trade.

In Wellington ‘house’ terms, the Hill had produced the largest number, eight, closely followed by the Stanley with seven. Every house was represented, there was also a day boy without a house affiliation, a governor, and a member of the Senior Common Room. One brother, Pollock, he of the bridge across the railway to Derby field (itself named after another Founder), managed to spend time in the Hill, the Stanley and even the Blucher.

Fully six had been Head of College, a further two had served as Deputy Heads, sixteen had been College Prefects, and four had been Head of the OTC, the equivilent of today’s Corps. To balance this somewhat officious impression, seven played for the XV, including two captains, six for the XI, four shot in the VIII, and two played Rackets for College.

Twenty-two went on to higher education, an exceptionally high number given the fact that the soldiers would have gone straight to Sandhurst or Woolwich. Thirteen went to Oxford, and seven to Cambridge. In College terms, the honours are even with Trinity Cambridge and Univ both having three graduates. In a somewhat un-Wellingtonian fashion, four managed scholarships.

For those that prefer their fellows less keen, fourteen record no College distinction or place at university. For the record, they all became army officers, none being promoted to anything less than the rank of Major, and included the Major General, two of the Brigadiers, and five of the six Colonels. One can only speculate on what conclusions to draw from this, although those familiar with the system will know that the Army took its men earlier, and the University men stayed on at College to sit the entrance exams, giving them longer to take the reigns at school.

As well as a Royal Duke and an Earl, two were knighted in their careers. There were six DSOs, an MC, seven Orders of the Bath, four orders of St Michael & St George, five British Empires and one Victorian Order. What Sir Humphrey would have made of that one can barely imagine. Only one is known to have been a citizen of a foreign power, an American, who nonetheless volunteered with the 4^th Yorks & Lancs in the Great War.

In terms of their masonry, ten had been initiated in lodges based outside what is today the United Kingdom, but was then part of the Empire. India, South Africa, Canada, Sierra Leone and Malta all feature, reflecting the postings of military and civil service men at that time. Six more were initiated into military lodges at home, including Aldershot Army & Navy Lodge No 1971 and Navy Lodge No 2612. Three were initiated into Apollo Lodge and four into Isaac Newton University Lodge, respectively the lodges of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, three were initiated into the Wellesley Lodge, then meeting in Crowthorne, one into a legal lodge and two into Red Apron lodges, Royal Somerset House & Inverness No IV and the Prince of Wales’s Lodge No 259. Just under half were in the Royal Arch.

On average they would serve the Lodge for twenty-three years, with one going on to become the ‘Founding Father of the Lodge’, the last surviving founder, and one of the two longest serving members to date, with a total of 64 years. Despite the many years service, only fourteen would become rulers of the Lodge.

Three would give their lives on active service in the coming Great War.