Ceremony of the Empty Chair

Posted Dec 16 2016
 
The scene was set at Temple 10 of Freemasons Hall, the Bloomsbury Rifles Lodge No: 2362 hosted 'The Ceremony of the Empty Chair' to remember and honour our fallen Brothers who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.  The Ceremony was performed by the Suffolk Grand Stewards No. 9215 ably conducted by W.Bro Peter Thorogood and delivered perfectly. The Temple itself was magnificent, but the mood was really set with the dimming of the lights and the organ playing old time war tunes such as 'Goodbyee' and eventually 'The Last Post.'  
We are reminded of the UGLE great war project, a database of all members of UGLE who fell in the Great War. At this time there are 3456 names on that database. I say at present because they rely on Lodges providing the information for that database.
 
At the end of 1918, according to the UGLE’s Directory of Lodges and Chapters 2015, there were 3913 Lodges registered. Many of you will doubtless know that Lodge No. 3913 is the Suffolk Installed Masters Lodge.
 
From that database, and generally knowing which Lodge you are associated with, ten of the Lodges represented here today lost someone in the Great War:
            Lodge of Unity, Peace and Concord
            Polish National
            Priory
            London Rifle Brigade
            London Scottish Rifles
            London Irish Rifles
            Bloomsbury Rifles
            Benevolentia
            Paddington Rifles
            Seaford
 
The database in fact records some 33 Brethren who died in the Great War from these Lodges. You can check for yourselves at www.masonicgreatwarproject.org.uk