Charity is one of the three pillars of Freemasonry.
Freemasons are taught to practise charity and to care, not only for their own, but also for the community as a whole – both by charitable giving, and by voluntary efforts and works as individuals.
The Old Wellingtonian Lodge has over the years supported many worthy causes, those with links to Wellington or Freemasonry, and those unrelated to either. These include causes as diverse as the relief of those Belgian civilians displaced by the First World War, Masonic victims of the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake, the Masonic Memorial Fund to build Freemasons Hall (thereby becoming a Hall Stone Lodge), the victims of the Quetta Earthquake in 1935 (the relief operations were in fact directed by a Lodge member Sir Alexander Cater, then Commissioner stationed there), and more recently Help For Heroes (the charity set up by OW Bryn Parry), Dr O’Conner’s Haematology Unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, the South East Kidney Patients Association, the PSLC Benevolent and Scholarship Funds, and the Metropolitan Masonic Charity (which aims to raise £3m for the purchase of a CyberKnife for London’s Barts Hospital Cancer Centre) amongst others.
We have also supported Wellington College in many ways, individually and collectively. Individual member’s bequests have seen the building of Pollock’s Bridge (named after Lodge Founder Dighton Pollock), which leads to Derby Field, acquired by and named after another Founder the 17th Earl of Derby and the relaying of the floorboards in Old Hall, bequeathed by Alfred Stanfield.
The Lodge has sponsored a number of projects and trips by members of College. We have also supported the Wellington charities the Herbert Trust, the JL Bevir Memorial Fund (named in memory of Lodge member J L Bevir), and the OW Society Charitable Trust.
We also regularly support the four great Masonic charities:
The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys
The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution
For more information about Freemasonry and Charity please see the Metropolitan Grand Lodge Website
Freemasonry is the UK’s single largest donor to charity after the National Lottery.