BLACKPOOL LODGE OF INTEGRITY NO 5864

TUESDAY 1 DECEMBER 2009

Bro Provincial Deputy Grand Director of Ceremonies, please be kind enough to admit the Tyler.

Brethren, this evening we are summoned to a very special meeting to honour and pay tribute to one who has served the Craft and the Blackpool Lodge of Integrity No 5864, loyally and faithfully for 50 years, 52 to be precise. I refer, of course, to our distinguished celebrant this evening, W Bro Jack Humphrey, PSGD PAPrGM.

from left, W.Bro. Leon Tax, W.Bro. Terry Hudson, W.Bro. Jack Humphrey, Bro Roy James W.M.
and W.Bro. Colin Wright

Brethren, the word celebrate means to do something enjoyable, because of a feeling of pleasure at some event or achievement. Bro Jack is today celebrating his 50^th Anniversary as a Freemason which, it seems to me, is most certainly an achievement well worth celebrating, and your presence here this evening Brethren, in such good numbers, would appear to indicate that you share that view.

Bro Provincial Deputy Grand Director of Ceremonies, would you please be good enough to place our celebrant before me so that I might address him.

Bro Jack, you have had the great good fortune to have experienced an extraordinarily rich and colourful life, as the Brethren here this evening are about to discover. You were born in the coal mining village of Worsbro-Bridge, near Barnsley, on 24 January 1920, the second son of Leonard and Mary Humphrey who, some five years earlier, had been blessed by an elder brother to you called Alec.

Not surprisingly your father was a coal miner, until one day when there was a disaster at the mine where he worked when four men were killed and he, trapped by one leg, had to be pulled to safety by rescuers. You remember as a child playing in the street behind the house and seeing your father, who had just walked the four miles home from the mine, with the skin on the left hand side of his face still dripping with blood.

He was still black with coal dust due to the pits having no modern facilities in those days such as baths or showers. You and your brother were put out of the house by your mother whilst she lifted down the large galvanised bath tub which was hung by a hook on the wall and prepared to wash your father clean before dressing his wounds. Your father never went down a pit again.

You remember your father as a kind, albeit reserved, man who used to play the organ on Sundays at the only church in the village.

It was, however, your dear mother, Mary, who was the heartbeat of the family. You remember her with unbounded affection as a warm hearted, loving lady who ensured that you and your brother had the happiest possible childhood given that there was precious little money about for anyone. She belonged to an era when women didn’t really work as such, but cared for their usually extensive families, where everyone looked after each other with warmth and kindness and where doors were always open.

A number of your Aunts and Uncles kept Public Houses and one on the Yorkshire moors named “The Isle of Sky” became vacant and, in 1925, your parents took the tenancy of it. It was a place which you quickly grew to love even though you and your brother, Alec, had to walk three miles to school in Holmbridge, which joined Holmfirth of “Last of the Summer Wine” fame.

Sadly your parents pub venture was destined not to last. The relative isolation of the pub meant that trade was desperately thin except, of course, for illicit after hours drinking: three convictions duly came their way and, inevitably, your father lost his license.

The decision was made to move and the choice was Blackpool. Your parents bought a small private hotel on the South Promenade called the “St Albans” and although the work was hard in the 1930’s, particularly on your mother upon whose shoulders much of the responsibility fell, your parents never regretted the move, and neither did you.

Your early education saw you first at Revoe where you were placed in the same class as Ronnie Parr, another future stalwart of this lodge. Afterwards you went to Thames Road School and later, at the age of 14, to a private school for two years in Alexandre Road. By now you had developed two great loves, Art and Football. At school your paintings and drawings were the only ones to be sent in exchange to an equivalent school in Czechoslovakia, and this love of all things artistic and creative was to play a significant part in your later life.

Tall for your age as a boy, in 1933 you played centre half for Blackpool schoolboys, in later life developing an all consuming passion for Newcastle United which, it has to be said, is somewhat lost upon the more rational of us, it being rather like having an all consuming passion for Blackpool for example or, perhaps, even Morecambe.

At 16 you started work in the motor trade, later going into road haulage until WW2 was declared, whereupon you soon found yourself conscripted into the RASC. In April 1941 you reported to Buller Barracks in Aldershot and put into a squad of 28 men from Wales, incongruously with just two of you from Blackpool.

It was intended that you should receive seven weeks training and then become glider pilots, but after six weeks your drill sergeant whom, you recall, was built like a mahogany wardrobe and looked about the same age as the young men he was drilling, informed you with a measure of that logic, unique to and characteristic of the Armed Services, that the Army had had a change of heart; instead of becoming a glider pilot you were to learn be a blacksmith, which meant going to a private blacksmiths forge in Bradford and living in a private house for ten weeks. Furthermore, you would be relieved of guard duties and, as an artificer, receive extra money once you had completed the course, an increase from two shillings a day to three.

In 1941 you were given four days leave prior to embarkation and, at 2.00 pm on the last day, you married your childhood sweetheart, Peggy, of whom more a little later, before catching the 10.00 pm train to Glasgow to board ship for North Africa, sleeping throughout on a hammock.

You first served under General Aukinlech, affectionately known as the “Auk”, and soon became a sergeant in charge of a fleet of 3 ton Bedford’s supplying food and ammunition to the 7^th Armoured Brigade. Whilst in Palestine for repairs, the call came round for men to train for the Parachute Regiment, in preparation for the invasion of Italy, and you and another sergeant volunteered, but when you were told that you would lose your stripes and, of course, the extra money that went with them, you quickly declined

However, within two days you were sent to Cairo to be interviewed by a young Colonel who asked you to join Force 133, based in Cyprus. Moreover, he allowed that you would be able to retain your stripes and so it was that you were sent to a training camp in Haifa for three weeks training, after which you were presented with your black steel commando knife and informed that you would receive a further ten shillings a week.

Brethren, in July 1940, Winston Churchill initiated an organisation called the Special Operations Executive, the SOE, designed to conduct warfare by means other than direct military engagement. Its mission was to encourage and facilitate espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines and to serve as the core of a British resistance movement.

Force 133, to which Jack became attached was, in effect, the code name for the SOE in that theatre of war which covered the Greek Islands and which spawned such legendry figures as Patrick Leigh-Fermor, Xan Fielding and W. Stanley Moss who, in peace time, all wrote of their wartime experiences. Billy Moss’ works included “Ill Met by Moonlight”, which was later made into a film starring Dirk Bogarde as Major, later Sir, Patrick Leigh-Fermor, David Oxley as Captain Billy Moss and Marius Goring as General Kreipe, whom they successfully abducted from the island of Crete.

You went to Cyprus and joined the “Saad”, a 39 foot two masted sailing vessel which was being loaded with arms and ammunition destined for the Greek Communist guerrillas, a few sacks of flour and yeast, and tins of bully beef and hard tack biscuits for distributing to starving islanders.

The Saad had a crew of five Englishmen and two Greek sailors who had been sponge divers in peace time. You spent the remainder of the war gun running to the Greek Communists, putting in and pulling out spies, picking up Allied airmen who had been shot down, and distributing food to islanders as far way as Mitylene, some 450 miles into enemy territory. In 1944 the five of you who were English were made Freemen of the Greek Island of Tinos and were carried round on the shoulders of the jubilant inhabitants.

You were demobilised in 1945 and, on returning to England, you spent £10 of your precious £80 gratuity on a pattern advertised in “Exchange and Mart”, which enabled you to start the manufacturing of soft toy rabbits, which you sold to shops throughout the town and stalls at the Pleasure Beach, all of whom welcomed you with open arms, so much so that you sold everything that you could make. As competition sprung up you switched to plastic toys and then on to shop window display units.

In 1962, following the birth of your son, Michael, you purchased a run down shop on Central Drive where your wife, Peggy, started selling costume jewellery and gifts. Your new venture went so well that you sold your manufacturing business and joined Peggy at the shop, which prospered more than you could ever have hoped. In time you ventured into selling brass giftware and you were successful to such an extent that you were able to import brass merchandise in bulk direct from India.

And what of Peggy. Well Brethren, as a young man our celebrant used regularly to attend dances at the Winter Gardens, -- didn’t we all, Brethren, happy days, -- and it was there, Jack, when you were both 16 and whilst you were still at school in Alexandre Road, that you met an attractive young lady called Peggy Chapman whom, you recall, very quickly became captivated by your fine physique, bearing, intelligence, wit and charm - now I have got all that in the right order, haven’t I Jack? - it was love at first sight, you told me, and whom, whilst on leave in 1941, as we have heard, you had the great good fortune to marry and with whom you lived very happily for over 46 years until, sadly, she died on 8 September 1987.

Your marriage was blessed with one son, Michael who, having gained proficiency in computer skills with BAC in Preston, emigrated to Australia as a young man and is now retired, having served throughout his adult life in computers with the Australian Federal Police.

I referred earlier to your artistic and creative skills, and the significant part they were to play in your future life. You later turned those talents into clay modelling and to get publicity you modelled the heads of the Blackpool Evening Gazettes “Girl of the Year” which were annually photographed and published in the Gazette. One of the young ladies in question, Jacqui Wilson, as she was then called, still has hers on show in her home and her husband, our good friend W Bro Sheldon Rawstrone, PPrJGW, is here this evening and has brought the bust along for us all to see a little later.

All of this initiated many commissions including a four foot bar relief model of a stags head for the Stags Head Hotel in Windermere. The Sportsmen’s Aid club commissioned you to model the head of the famous Blackpool wrestler, Jack Pye which, before being presented to him, was displayed for a while in a gentlemen’s outfitters shop in Church Street. Further, you modelled the head of Winston Churchill from newspaper photographs and when it was cast in the usual bronze it was placed on exhibition in Liverpool where, sadly, it was stolen within the first week and has never been discovered.

Your interest in Freemasonry was stimulated by Stanley Bailey and Dennis Airey whom you used to meet at the Museum Club which was situated over the Sports Shop which existed for many years at the lower end of Church Street, and it was they who came to Propose and Second you into the Blackpool Lodge of Integrity No 5864, on 3 December 1957.

And now Bro Secretary, would you please be kind enough to read the minutes of the regular meeting of the lodge held on the 3 December 1957.

Bro Jack, your involvement in Freemasonry over the past 52 years has been prodigious and it is a daunting challenge indeed to some one charged with adequately portraying the vast contribution you have made during that time; we can but try.

W.Bro. Terry Hudson, W.Bro. Jack Humphrey and Bro. Roy James W.M.

Having been Installed as Master of your lodge in October 1967, you thereafter soon came into prominence when, in 1973, you were appointed Secretary of the then South Blackpool Group, here in Adelaide Street, serving in that capacity for 9 years before being appointed Group Chairman in 1982 on the retirement of Bert Thurman and Stanley Taylor, Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively.

Your term of office was initially beset with problems. You had a difficult path to negotiate for moral here in Adelaide Street was low, there being rumblings of discontent and despondency with at least one lodge threatening to move to the Imperial Hotel. The financial outlook was bleak, and whilst they were not in debt the Club Committee had no money. It was therefore unhelpful that the building was in need of re-wiring, the kitchens of refurbishment and the roof in a state of disrepair

You formed a committee of Brethren who were qualified tradesmen, including Bill Eardley of this parish, who volunteered to undertake the physical problems of the building, and within six weeks you had visited every lodge in the Group to persuade them to raise the necessary funds by holding raffles and presenting reasonable cheques from any contingency funds they may be holding; all for the Building Fund.

You also organised a most impressive Spring Fare at George Partington’s holiday camp, influencing every lodge to provide a stall and, subsequently, a huge draw after persuading a few of the wealthier brethren to provide first class prizes, principally a fortnights cruise for two from Bro Eric Bourne, of Bourne Travel, as the top prize.

Slowly but surely conditions here improved and balance was achieved. Brethren of the present era, meeting here in Adelaide Street, now enjoy very fine facilities in secure conditions and it is no exaggeration to suggest that they owe a considerable debt of gratitude to you for their present well being and security.

It therefore came as no surprise that, in 1990, the Grand Superintendent, Comp Kenneth Edward Moxley, invited you to become an Assistant to the Grand Superintendent, in succession to the much respected and affectionately held Rev Dr Harold Kirk Smith, whom he had appointed Deputy Grand Superintendent, with responsibility for the Royal Arch Chapters meeting here in the Fylde.

You were delighted by this appointment and, at the age of 70, fondly thought it to have been your finale. However, 3 years later, in 1993, and much to your surprise, Bro Moxley, as Provincial Grand Master, invited you to succeed the late James Edward Glover as an Assistant Provincial Grand Master with responsibility for the lodges meeting in the North Blackpool and North Fylde Groups, which office you accepted and proceeded to discharge with endearing warmth, consummate style and great distinction and to the infinite satisfaction of the many Brethren for whom you were responsible until, after a period of 5 years in office, you finally retired in 1998.

It follows that, throughout your career, you have received recognition from Grand Lodge and Supreme Grand Chapter on a number of occasions. Your first appointment to Grand Rank in the Craft, as a PAGDC, came in 1978, followed in 1989 by promotion to the rank of PJGD and, in 1994, to the very high rank of PSGD. In the Royal Arch your first appointment to the rank of PGStdB came in 1983, followed by promotion to the rank of PAGSoj in 1990.

In the Craft you were a Founder and the Consecrating Secretary of Round Table Lodge No 8111, and you have been a member of Lathom Lodge No 2229, the Senatores Lodge of Installed Masters No 8966, becoming its WM in 1996, and the Setantia Lodge of Installed Masters No 7755, becoming its WM in 1997.

In the Royal Arch, you were Exalted into Saturnian Chapter No 7563 in 1965, becoming its First Principal in 1974. You were a Founder of the Blackpool Chapter of Integrity No 5864, the Blackpool Chapter of Sincerity No 4147 and the Senatores Chapter of Installed First Principals No 8966, becoming the First Principal of the latter two in 1988 and 1992 respectively and you have been a member of the Setantia Chapter of Installed First Principals No 7755 and, as an illustration of the esteem in which you are and have been held, an Honorary Member of numerous Lodges and Chapters throughout the Fylde.

In your retirement you developed a hugely entertaining and most enjoyable “Rudyard Kipling” themed evening, in which you delivered your own narrative, with music by Malcolm Burrill, Ian Benson and Raymond Hargreaves, which you delivered on 35 occasions over an area which included lodges here in the Fylde, Manchester, Blackburn, Bolton, Chester, Widnes and Liverpool

Some masonic career, you may think Brethren; some Freemason, I would suggest to you, and there is more, be assured. Bro Jack, I am perfectly certain that the brethren of your lodge are quite properly very proud of you, as indeed they ought, for you have become the most illustrious and distinguished brother in the history of your lodge; the Blackpool Lodge of Integrity No 5864

Brethren, over the years Bro Jack Humphrey has proved himself to be a man of consummate integrity and commitment and this evening he celebrates his Golden Jubilee in Freemasonry. I am sure that we all wish him the very best of good health and happiness for many years to come and I now call upon your Group Chairman, W Bro Ian Robertson, PAGDC, to read the scroll which comes from our R W Pr G M, Bro Peter John Hosker.

Bro Jack, may I conclude the proceedings here in the Lodge Room this evening by offering you my warmest personal congratulations on achieving this wonderful milestone in your masonic career. You should know that I consider it both a privilege and a pleasure to be here this evening and to have been able to take part in such a happy and rewarding evening.

1 December 2009