George Latham was the Lodge’s first Lewis1 being the son of one of the Founders and 1915 Worshipful Deputy Master Alexander Mere Latham. Our only photograph of him was taken in 1915, his father’s year as WDM, when George was a subaltern the Western Front (detail above, full photo below).
Born in 1893, Latham went to Wellington in 1906, was in the Stanley and was made a College Prefect. He went to the Royal Military College and passed out first in his class in 1913. Commissioned into Corps of Royal Engineers he saw service in both world wars, and was a Regimental Colonel immediately before World War Two.
He was initiated in June 1914 at the age of 20, as was his right. He served the Lodge for 55 years. He was the only member to serve the lodge as both WDM, in 1927, and as WM, in 1947. He is our youngest initiate to date, and at 33 one of our youngest Masters.
Outside the Army and Masonry he was noted for creating a two-pack variant of the Patience card game call Robin Post.
He passed away in 1969.
Notes
- By the Constitutions of England, a lewis or son of a Mason may be initiated at the age of eighteen, while it is required of all other candidates that they shall have arrived at the maturer age of twenty-one.