The London Preceptories form two Groups
Right Eminent Knight Jack Dribbell GCT
Over the years prior to 1990 twenty-four independent Preceptories of Knights Templar had come into existence in London and were answerable only to Great Priory. The idea that the London Preceptories should have their own Province was first mooted in 1990. In August of that year the Great Vice-Chancellor (Right Eminent Knight Peter Glyn Williams, KCT, later GCT) invited Very Eminent Knight Jack Lodewyk Charles Dribbell (since deceased) and Very Eminent Knight David Ivor Williams to a meeting at which he explained his intention to form the London Preceptories into two Groups and asked if they would be prepared to head the Groups.
Both having agreed, the Investiture of Jack and David took place on 20 November 1990 by the Grand Master at the time, Harold Devereux Still, GCT: Jack became Group Inspector of the Duke Group of those London Preceptories meeting at No 10 Duke Street; David became Group Inspector of the James Group of those London Preceptories meeting at 86 St James (now Mark Masons’ Hall). A list of the current London Preceptories, highlighting those in the two original Groups, is included as Appendix 1. The two Group Inspectors were invested with all the powers of a Provincial Prior – except the powers to issue dispensations and to levy funds from their Preceptories.
On 29 January 1991, the Registrars of the Preceptories in the two Groups were called to a meeting at Mark Masons Hall. The meeting was opened by the Great Vice-Chancellor, who explained the reasoning behind the formation of the London Groups and the terms of reference of the two Group Inspectors, the latter having been previously circulated by letter to the Registrars. After taking questions, the Great Vice-Chancellor left the meeting to attend another engagement. Jack Dribbell then outlined the format of a formal meeting of the two Groups, to be held on 18 March 1991 at 10 Duke Street under the Banner of the Oxford, Cambridge and United Preceptory No 128.
The members of the London Preceptories were duly called to the meeting on 18 March 1991 at Duke Street, when the formation of the two Groups was formally announced by the Great Vice-Chancellor, who introduced the two Group Inspectors and left them to preside over the remaining business. A key decision was made early in the proceedings, when the Very Eminent Knight Paul Aldworth of the Bard of Avon Preceptory No 127 volunteered to act as Registrar for both Groups. His offer was gratefully accepted and thereafter Jack and David would meet at Paul’s home to conduct the administration of the two Groups.
The Malta ceremony was worked in full, with a team of Officers made up of volunteers from both Groups of the London Preceptories. During the ceremony, a number of Knights-Candidate were Installed as Knights of Malta. The ceremonial work was supervised by the Right Eminent Knight Brigadier Geoffrey Lewis Galloway GCT, who kindly acted as Mareschal. The Knights afterwards dined at Mark Masons Hall.
Following the Malta ceremony, the meeting divided under the respective leaderships of the two Group Inspectors. Unfortunately, no record remains of the discussions held within the Duke Group, but a summary report was retained by David of the proceedings in the James Group.
Right Eminent Knight David Ivor Williams KCT
Within the James Group, routine matters of administration were dealt with in accordance with the Great Vice-Chancellor’s earlier letter. David was particularly keen to draw attention to the Grand Master’s Bodyguard: whereas it had formerly been difficult for individual Preceptories to recommend their members for service in the Grand Master’s Bodyguard, in future there would be opportunities for Group Inspectors to make such recommendations based upon submissions from Preceptories.
Given the inevitable (but hopefully small) costs that would be entailed in administering the Groups, the question of finance had to be raised. David explained that there was no provision for funding the activities of the Group and that a small charge on the membership might be necessary, in pence rather than pounds, to cover costs. While the levying of charges was accepted by those present, David further explained that Great Priory approval would be necessary.
Jack had expressed no desire to hold a Duke Group Malta meeting, but David felt that it would be an excellent opportunity to bring the Preceptories in his Group together to get to know one another. David emphasised, however, that he had no wish to prevent Preceptories conferring the Malta Degree during their own Malta ceremonies. Thus assured, the first James Group Malta meeting was held at Duke Street on 1 November 1991, under the Banner of Mount Calvary Preceptory ‘D’, with every Preceptory in the Group having a representative on the list of officers. While the Knights-Candidate of Malta were outside the Chapter House, for the conferment of the intermediate Degree of Knight of St Paul in the Guard Room, the opportunity was taken to invest worthy Knights with London (KT) Rank.
The Group system worked well, but administration costs, funded entirely at the time by Jack and David, were mounting. Consequently, in 1992, the two Group Inspectors petitioned the Great Vice-Chancellor for authority to levy a 50p charge on the memberships of their respective Preceptories.
The petition did not, apparently, meet with the approval of the Grand Master, who instead decided to amalgamate the two Groups to form in 1992 a single Province for London that could be funded from membership subscriptions like any other Province.
The First Provincial Prior Right Eminent Knight Jack Lodewyk Charles Dribbell KCT (1999), GCT (2012)
The Province of London, the 39th and most recent of the Provinces of the Order, was constituted at Mark Masons’ Hall, London, on Wednesday 30 September 1992 under the Banner of Bard of Avon Preceptory No 127. The Constituting Officer was the Grand Master of the day, the Most Eminent and Supreme Grand Master Harold Devereux Still, GCT (since deceased).
Very Eminent Knight Jack Dribbell, Group Inspector of the former Duke Group and Provincial Prior Nominate , received his Patent of Appointment at the Grand Master’s hands and was duly Installed as the first Provincial Prior of London.
Very Eminent Knight David Ivor Williams, Group Inspector of the former James Group and Provincial SubPrior Nominate, received his Patent of Appointment at the Provincial Prior’s hands and was Installed as the first Provincial Sub-Prior of London. The meeting was convened by Very Eminent Knight Paul Aldworth, Past Great Registrar, who became the first Provincial Vice-Chancellor. The twenty four Preceptories on the Provincial role as at that date ranged from the Time Immemorial Mount Calvary Preceptory D and the Faith and Fidelity Preceptory No 26 consecrated in September 1838 to the (then) most recent Guild of Freemen Preceptory No 512 consecrated in October 1981.
The newly Installed Provincial Prior, Jack, in his address to the Knights of the new Province, included several telling statements:
‘If you wish to know what my hopes are for this new Province I can tell you in a very few words. I should like London Knights Templar to be glad that we have our very own Provincial Priory. … the Province will be able to build on the work already begun in the James Group and the Duke Group in local conferment of the Malta Degree. The old method in which new Knights took their St Paul and Malta Knighthoods in Great Priory and then hardly saw the ritual ever again was, in my view, unsatisfactory. Many Masonic historians … have stressed that the Temple and Malta ceremonies form a complete Rite. To achieve this we shall need to practice some self-restraint. Those who like reams of print, news-letters that no-one reads but everyone pays for, complex administrative returns, and so on, will find this Priory an unsuitable vehicle. Those who like to see plenty of money slushing to and fro will also be disappointed; … in a word, we shall be economical so long as I have anything to do with it. We shall actively encourage local conferment of the Malta Degree.’
Jack was evidently frugal, both in words and finance, and in the years that followed his hopes were largely realised. Under Jack’s term of Office, one new Preceptory was consecrated in London almost immediately: St John at Ealing No 575 in November 1992 and that Preceptory, too, celebrated its own 25th anniversary in November 2017.
The Second Provincial Prior Right Eminent Knight Alfred John Day KCT (2005)
On 29 September 1997 Jack passed the Baton of the Province to a new Provincial Prior, the Right Eminent Knight Alf Day, who had been Provincial Vice-Chancellor since taking over the Office from Paul Aldworth in 1993. Alf, as he was affectionately known within the Province and beyond, was installed by the Most Eminent and Supreme Grand Master, Leslie Felgate Dring, GCT, in a colourful and impressive ceremony.
At Alf’s invitation, David Williams continued to serve as Provincial Sub-Prior for a further five years, until succeeded by the (at that time) Eminent Knight Edwin Bryant Goodwin who had been Provincial Vice-Chancellor since 1999.
At Great Priory meeting in May 2003, Very Eminent Knight David Williams was rewarded for his years of outstanding and selfless service to his Preceptories and to the Province by being appointed and invested as a Knight Commander of the Temple (KCT). Eddie, as he too was affectionately known, was at the same meeting appointed and invested with the active rank of Great Registrar – once again a reward for his friendly and effective service as Vice-Chancellor. Alf’s services both to the Province and to Great Priory were duly rewarded two years later, at the Great Priory meeting in May 2005, by his appointment and investiture as a Knight Commander of the Temple.
During the years following his appointment, Alf consecrated two new Preceptories and reoponed a third, The two new Preceptories were the London Bodyguard Preceptory No 614 (11 December 1998) for past and present members of the Provincial Prior’s Bodyguard and the Londinium Preceptory for Past Preceptors. The Coromandel Preceptory No. 73 was reoponed, effectively restored to life, in July 2002 in the presence of the Most Eminent and Supreme Grand Master who presented the Warrant of Confirmation.
Coromandel had been consecrated in India in 1828 and been dormant since 1989. Originally called the Encampment of St John of Jerusalem, it had been worked by dispensation until about 1860 when a Warrant was issued; the name Coromandel was adopted around 1916.
Alf was instrumental in the initiation of a Provincial newsletter, Knightly Topics, in the spring of 2001 that continues to this day to be issued twice each year: in the spring and autumn. The first Editor was Very Eminent Knight Major George Elliot Hodge REME (now deceased); the current editor, since 2015, is Eminent Knight Stuart David Henderson. From a simple two-page first issue, Knightly Topics has expanded over the years to the extent that the Spring 2017 issue (No 33) contained no less than 15 pages and was packed with interesting and useful information about the Province and other topics of general and historical interest.
Alf also attempted in about 2002 to collect and collate information relating to the Province with a view to creating an archive for future use – the basis for establishing a history of the Province. He set up a committee of three members of the Province: Right Eminent Knight Jack Dribbell, Eminent Knight Dai Davies and Brother Knight Simon Brookman. Whatever information was collected at that time has since
unfortunately been lost.
During Alf’s tenure of office, London earned another distinction when in November 2005 the Provincial Sub-Prior, Very Eminent Knight Eddie Goodwin, was installed by the Most Eminent and Supreme Grand Master (Leslie Felgate Dring) as Great Prior of Malta – it was an office that Eddie would hold until November 2015.
The Third Provincial Prior Right Eminent Knight Edwin Bryant Goodwin KCT (2014)
The Most Eminent and Supreme Grand Master, Leslie Felgate Dring was in action again in the Province on 29 September 2006 when he installed as Alf’s successor, the Right Eminent Knight Eddie Goodwin in an impressive ceremony. Eddie was already well known in the Province and beyond, having been Provincial Vice-Chancellor since 1999 and Sub-Prior since 2002 and he was also particularly eminent in numerous other Orders.
During Eddie’s Installation meeting, he appointed the Eminent Knight Michael Conrad Fox to be his Provincial Sub-Prior. Prior to the meeting, Michael had served the Province as Vice-Chancellor since 2002.
It was during Eddie’s term of Office that the first seeds were sown for a Provincial Web site although, disappointingly, they failed to flourish at that time and the first tentative attempt at a web site lay fallow for some years. Like Alf before him, Eddie was very active in the Province. When Londinium Preceptory No 632 met on Wednesday 19 December 2007, the meeting was blessed by the presence not only of Eddie but also of his two predecessors, Jack and Alf.
Then, on the following day, Eddie was present at Coromandel Preceptory No 73 on when Eminent Knight Trevor Peter Dutt, RD, FRCOG, Past Provincial Sword Bearer (later Past Great Herald) was Installed as Eminent Preceptor. Eddie’s services both to the Province and to Great Priory were duly rewarded two years after retiring as Provincial Prior, at the Great Priory meeting in May 2014, by his appointment and investiture as a Knight Commander of the Temple.
The Fourth Provincial Prior Right Eminent Knight Michael Conrad Fox
The Province changed hands once again in 2012, when Eddie chose to pass on the Baton. A year earlier a new Grand Master had been appointed and invested at the Great Priory meeting in May 2011: the Most Eminent and Supreme Knight Timothy John Lewis, GCT. So it was that on 1st October 2012 the new Grand Master graciously installed Very Eminent Knight Michael Fox, Past Great Registrar, as the fourth Provincial Prior for London.
Michael, who preferred to be known as Mike, had been Alf’s Vice-Chancellor (2002-2006) and Eddie’s Sub-Prior (2006- 2012). He, in his turn, was pleased to appoint Eminent Knight Victor Lawrence Parnis, Past Great Standard Bearer (Beauceant), as Provincial Sub-Prior; Victor had served Eddie as his Vice-Chancellor from 2009 until 2012. Eminent Knight Roger Alfred William Farley, Past Great Aid e-de-Camp, was at the same time appointed and invested as Provincial Vice-Chancellor from 2012 until 2016, when he retired from the Office and was superseded by Eminent Knight Ian Douglas Brooks.
During the years following his installation as Provincial Prior, Mike actively, enthusiastically and successfully promoted and encouraged Brother Knights to attend the King Edward VII Preceptory of Improvement sessions. Working with his Provincial Officers and especially the Provincial Marshal’s team under Eminent Knight Keith Leslie Florence (later Past Great Herald), he introduced some ceremonial changes for the September Provincial Priory meetings, perhaps the most significant of which was the parading into the Temple of Knights newly installed during the Provincial year.
Whilst maintaining the traditional activities within the Province – the July Registrars’ Mess and the Christmas Family Church Service of Lessons and Carols – Mike established an annual white table luncheon to encourage each generation of active Provincial Officers, their wives and their companions to meet socially, to get to know each other and to exchange ideas for the good of the Province and the Order.
During Mike’s term of Office the Provincial News Letter, Knightly Topics, continued to develop as a means for communicating with the Knights of the Province. Since effectively 2016 Knightly Topics was supplemented by a completely new Provincial web site (www.londonprovincekt.org), designed and developed initially by Eminent Knight Keith Victor Towner (Sancta Maria Preceptory No 183); further improvements in appearance and functionality were later introduced by Keith in collaboration with the Brother Knight Vernon Edward King (Golden Square Preceptory No 219), both Knights being members of the Provincial Prior’s Bodyguard.
A special event in the Province occurred on 24 October 2015 when a new Preceptory, Secretum Templi Londinium No 695, was consecrated by the Very High and Right Eminent Great Seneschal Malcolm Ernest Slater GCT in an impressive and moving ceremony. The consecration was followed by the installation of the Preceptor Nominate, the Eminent Knight Luciano D’Alessandro; the Provincial Prior for London acted as Installing Officer. What made the occasion particularly special was the fact that the new Preceptory was an Italian-speaking Preceptory; although the proceedings during the 24th October meeting were conducted primarily in English, all of the members would thereafter work their meetings and ceremonies in Italian and almost all of the members were not only Italian but were living and working in Italy, though with London Masonic connections.
Among several initiatives during 2017 a small group of Provincial Knights terming themselves ‘Knights-Errant’, operating under the direction of Eminent Knight Antony Fabian Legge, Deputy Provincial Marshal and Past Great Captain of Guards, was established with the aim of offering assistance to Preceptories that for one reason or another experienced difficulties in performing their ceremonies – perhaps through lack of members attending, or of members with the necessary experience. The group, comprising Knights at all levels of rank and experience within the Order, responds to requests from Preceptories and offers above all else – enthusiasm.
The final Provincial meeting of the 2017-18 year was the Provincial Malta meeting on 29 January 2018. This proved to be a fitting occasion on which to approve a generous donation of £14,000 to the St John’s Eye Hospital in Jerusalem in celebration of the Province’s 25th Anniversary. During the Festive Board that followed Mike took great pleasure and pride in presenting to Eminent Knight Jamie Ingham-Clark StJ representing the Order of St John, with the donation from the Province, emphasising that although the donation included a contribution for the Province’s charity funds, the bulk of the donation resulted from generous contributions from London’s Preceptories raised during the Anniversary year. Thanking the Province for the donation, E Kt Jamie presented to the Province a bronze model of a swift, explaining that a life-sized sculpture of an olive tree had been installed in the garden of the Order’s Muristan Clinic in the old city of Jerusalem, the branches of which bear not leaves but swifts, symbolising life and hope. Flights of bronze swifts are to be placed around the walls of the Clinic and the Hospital, one of which is to bear the name of the Province of London in recognition of the donation.
A week before the Provincial Malta meeting, Mike had informed the Great Vice-Chancellor of his intention to stand down as Provincial Prior during the year. Mike announced his decision during the Festive Board. By agreement with the Great Vice-Chancellor, Mike’s last day in Office was to be Wednesday 16 May 2018, the date of the Great Priory meeting during which a number of London Knights recommended by Mike were to be among those receiving Great Honours at the hands of the Grand Master. Those to be honoured with promotions for services to the Province and especially to the Provincial Prior included Eminent Knight Victor Parnis (Provincial Sub-Prior), to be Past Great Registrar; Eminent Knight Ian Brooks (Provincial Vice-Chancellor), to be Past Deputy Great Sword Bearer; and Eminent Knight Roger Farley (former Provincial Vice-Chancellor), to be Past Great Herald.
For Mike, it was to be a satisfying end to his term of Office.
Officers of the London Bodyguard Preceptory No 614 invested during the Consecration on 11 December 1998. E Kt Ernie Bond, first Eminent Preceptor and Commander of the Provincial Prior’s Bodyguard is seated in the centre of the front row
The Provincial Prior's Bodyguard
Jack Dribbell appointed the first Bodyguard on 30 September 1992 under the command of E Kt E (Ernie) R Bond. There were eight other members: Kts S M Jones, M C R McDonald, M J Neill, J Wheeler, C W Jones, P A Wallis, F Edwards and J R Titcombe. No programme of work was devised for the fledgling Bodyguard, which
languished as a consequence.
A new Bodyguard was appointed in September 1993, again under the command of Ernie Bond, and it was this team that began to set the pattern for the future with the introduction of a programme of work based around planned Official Visits to Preceptories.
The new team comprised a number of Knights who would go on to have a long-term commitment to the Bodyguard and, in several cases, would play major roles in the Orders of the Temple, of Malta and many other Orders in London: Eddie Goodwin (Deputy Commander), David Ashbolt, Phillip Brown, Les Fox, Michael Snell, Bob Sowka, Michael Munro, Hubert Small, E A Anderson, Tony Allenby, Arthur Addy and Malcolm Hill.
These Knights, with a few additions the following year like Richard Roberts and Gordon Rolls (later Deputy Commander), would form the nucleus from which the Bodyguard of today has evolved under a succession of further Commanders – Eminent Knights Captain Richard Fogwill RN, David Phythian and currently Brian Francois. The Bodyguard has, over the years, cemented itself into the fabric of the Province as a team dedicated to serving the Province, the Visiting Provincial Officers and the Preceptories within the Province.