The New Zealand Expeditionary Force Masonic Association A poignant example of Masonic brotherhood
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n a display mounted in a Torquay hotel as part of the Freemasonry in the Community “Week of Action” in 2003, Torquay the late Mike Chittenden, Librarian of Jordan Lodge No.1402 and his colleague, Masonic historian and Past Master of Jordan Lodge, John Taylor, caused considerable local interest by mounting a display of photographs and documents illustrating the contribution of Freemasonry to one aspect of the First World War. Their display struck a chord with the people of Torquay and was given a double-page spread in the South Devon newspaper, the Herald Express. It showed Freemasonry in a new light and revealed a bit of Torquay’s past which had long been forgotten. At the outbreak of the First World War, New Zealand, with a population of 450,000, raised an army of around 100,000 men. The first 8000 volunteers left for Egypt in September 1914. This small army became known as The New Zealand Expeditionary Force and formed a component of the famous Australian and New Zealand Army Corps — the ANZACs. This Force was first sent to the Middle East, fighting in Palestine then Gallipoli. Moving to Flanders it fought at Messines Ridge and Passchendale, to name but two actions. Over 17,000 members of the Expeditionary Force were to lose their lives. In 1917 the New Zealanders were withdrawn to England to rest and convalesce from their wounds. Torquay was chosen as one of the Discharge Depots and in May, the New Zealanders began to arrive. Many of the wounded were treated at Oldway Military Hospital and other local Regimental hospitals in the district. The Headquarters of the New Zealanders was at Hampton Court, a large private house in St. Marychurch, a suburb of Torquay, with many of the troops living in tents in the surrounding fields. They all ate in the St. Marychurch Town Hall. Torquay’s administration offered help: in October the Mayor opened a special YMCA for the troops; a second was opened in 1918. The New Zealand High Commissioner too 36
opened a social club for the troops. And with the troops from France came many hundreds of Freemasons, together with a new organisation, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Masonic Association. The Masonic Association
There were many Freemasons serving in the New Zealand forces and while they were stationed in Egypt it is known that Brethren took the opportunity to visit Lodges but there was no move to organise a general meeting of Freemasons serving in the army until the New Zealand Division was transferred to Flanders in May 1916. On 21June 1916, at 44 rue Nationale in Armentieres, a Freemason, Major (later LtColonel) George Barclay of the New Zealand Engineers, called a meeting of all Freemasons serving in the New Zealand Forces. Eighty-five Freemasons attended this first gathering. They represented seventy-two lodges from the New Zealand, English, Scottish and New South Wales’ Grand Lodges and Districts. It was decided to hold further meetings in order to allow Brethren to maintain a social contact as well as preserving access to Masonic tradition and practice. An organising committee was formed from masons representing Divisional Headquarters, New Zealand Artillery, New Zealand Engineers, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Infantry Brigades, the New Zealand Medical Corps and other units; the Chaplain to the New Zealand Forces, the Revd E.E. Malden was elected Secretary. A second meeting was held on 3 July where a lecture was given on the initiation ceremony by Major Barclay. The minute’s record that the night was rendered “hideous” by shelling; two shells landing beside the room in which the meeting had earlier been held. After several more meetings it was decided to establish something permanentthe NZEF Masonic Association. Its objects were to promote fraternal friendship, arranging Masonic instruction and lectures, to facilitate the visiting of Lodges in England and to obtain information about
the death of any Brethren. It came into formal existence on 5 February, 1917. By this date some 500 Freemasons were known to be serving in the Force of which some 270 had joined the Association. Recruiting continued and by early 1918 some 882 members were recorded. Social evenings and meetings were held — many taking the form of Lodges of Instruction. To commemorate the Association and the times a jewel was created and issued in 1918 for all members to wear; a gold version was later presented to the United Grand Lodge of England. The first branch of the Association in England was formed at Sling Camp in July 1917. This was followed by a rapid spread of the Association throughout the training and command depots, and hospitals, fraternal visits to local Lodges being one very popular and widespread result. A branch of the Association also formed in Palestine on 27 May 1917. This was to produce a surprise for the New Zealand masons: a meeting was arranged in Jerusalem on 6 April1918. The masons drove up from Jericho, where they were based, for a meeting to be held in the natural cavern beneath the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. There, they formed the Lodge and opened it in the First Degree. Helping them in this venture was the Sheikh in charge of the Dome of the Rock (the Mosque of Omar) -to the surprise of all Brethren present he proved himself a Freemason and joined them in the Lodge meeting. This Masonic Arab Sheikh was some thing of an enigma: it is thought that he had been initiated into Freemasonry during the Turkish rule — a Provincial Grand Lodge of Turkey had been created in 1861 and in 1893, a Lodge under the Grand Lodge of Canada was formed in Jerusalem. It worked in King Solomon’s Quarries, a large cavern beneath the Temple. Unfortunately its irregularity became too much for the Canadians who suspended the Lodge in 1901 and soon withdrew its Warrant.