Major Ernest Arthur Northen was in the Orange from 1911, arriving at the same time as fellow Lodge member Kenneth Latter, and became a dormitory prefect before going to the RMC Sandhurst. He was in the 2nd XV at Wellington, and the 1915 Yearbook’s notes on that team describes him, perhaps somewhat indifferently, as a “Forward. Good out of touch, but slow. Hardly makes enough use of his size and weight”. He was also suitably enough a sergeant in the Corps.
Commissioned in the 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) Dragoon Guards in 1916, he saw service in both wars, with a brief retirement to civilian life in between before being recalled to his Regiment which had become the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.
He was initiated into freemasonry by the OW Lodge in 1933, becoming Worshipful Deputy Master in 1943. He joined the Lodge of Antiquity No 2 in 1948, being nominated by them to be a Grand Steward in 1958 and was that Lodge’s Master in 1959.
He was a member of both the Cavalry and Constitutional Clubs.