Some time ago I received a phone call from a good friend of mine Bro. Bob Stirling, P.M. of Lodge Motherwell Caledonian No. 1228 and a member of Provincial Grand Committee. He was concerned that the Lodge Secretary was due to retire after many years of service to the Lodge and that he had promised to succeed him in office.
Why was that a concern, you may think? Well, in the months prior to the Election of Office Bearers, Bob had lost his eyesight. Here is the remarkable story of how he kept that promise and with some encouragement and training at the local college has just completed a year as "Acting Secretary" of the Lodge.
Let there be light, four simple words, words that often have been heard on Lodge night. All masons know, or should know, the interpretation of this simple but never less powerful command. However, to people like myself, who are registered blind, the phrase takes on a different connotation.
When I was approached to write an article, on being a blind Mason, it set my brain working, and that takes some effort, on what exactly a blind mason was. I soon came to the conclusion that a blind Mason, and there are many, indeed too many, blind Masons, who are not necessarily visually impaired but are simply Brethren who cannot see the good that one gets out of Masonry, the friendship, the support from fellow Brethren when required and, most of all, being part of the most Ancient and Honourable Society in the World.
That is when I decided that I was "not a blind Mason" and this is the important decision, I decided that I was indeed "a Mason who was blind". This decision showed me just how the same words, written in a different order, can translate into an entirely different meaning.
A Mason who is blind. Easy enough words to read but very difficult to comprehend exactly what it entails and the way in which it can alter your lifestyle as well as your Masonic career.
Four short years ago, just after my second reign as Master, I was preparing myself to take over the office of Secretary of my Mother Lodge. Bro. Jim Thom, P.M. our illustrious secretary for many a long year (22 to be exact) was having to retire from the post, due to business commitments and travelling problems, and I had agreed to take over.
Sadly it was not to be. After many painful and soul destroying operations, I finally was told that there was nothing more to be done and I would be blind in a matter of months if not quicker.
To say that I was totally shattered was the understatement of the century but even then the whole scenario just did not sink in, this could not be happening to me, I always had very good eyesight, although I wore glasses to stave off migraine attacks, I just could not accept this, there must be some mistake.
First off I lost my beloved driving licence, then I started to walk into objects that I knew was there, and had been for some time, but the dawn of realisation was when I knew my wife was sitting across from me in the living room and I could not see her.
That was when the tears finally came and I can assure you they came in abundance. You put on a brave face but once behind closed doors you feel so alone and abandoned that there seems to be nothing left.
How can you face up to the fact that gone are the Sunrises, the Starry Nights, the Beautiful Scottish Scenery and that you are going to have grand children that you will be able to hold but never to appreciate their beauty.
Dark days indeed, in more ways than one, your whole life is changed and that of your family. This is the time that one must get a grip of oneself, dry their eyes, and start to build a new life, for new life it is, having to live by the sense of touch, smell and memory.
One cannot do it alone, my wife Helen has been my rock, and the salvation of my sanity, she encouraged me in the black moods, helped me when I stumbled and gave me a good kick in the rear end as and when required. I often said that I was going to retire from Masonry after I lost my sight but Helen, knowing how much I enjoyed my meetings, encouraged me to get back into the fold once more.
One of the times that Helen and I were on holiday we had met a young lad who was totally blind and worked full time as a social worker.
He was an inspiration to me and told me if I wanted to do anything in the secretarial line I would need computer skills. Taking this advice I contacted a College, who had classes for the visually impaired, passed the interviews and was accepted. I was on my way, a little worried I may add, thinking of the years since I last studied but never the less determined to give it a go.
The Tutors are fantastic, one of them is blind so he therefore can relate to the problems that arise, when studying computers and keyboard skills, owing to your blindness.
They teach you to touch type first of all, and that must take the patience of Job, and at the same time introduce you to the wonderful software that speaks every letter that you type, and even highlights whether it is a capital letter or not. We, the visually impaired, do not use the mouse we instead use the keyboard for all our movements around the monitor.
As the acting secretary for my Lodge, at the moment, I received all the mail for the Lodge and I am able to answer it without outside help.
This is done by the following method, laborious it may be, but with satisfactory results.
A letter is placed into the scanner and is shown on the monitor and once the correct procedure is carried the specialist software then proceeds to read the letter to you. Once you have read the letter over three or four times, you have saved the document, either on hard or floppy disc, and prepare to type your reply if one is required.
After you have painstakingly went over every character that you have typed you can then print. There are certain manoeuvres that I cannot manage as yet, such as taking minutes, or even reading them, but given time and I am sure, with modern technology this problem will be overcome.
I still need help from a sighted person, for example, to fill in forms and such like. I need help to get to my meetings, as I said at the start of this article, support from my fellow Brethren. That word "support" should take the place of "sympathy", for that is all that people who are visually impaired require, and for all the support that I have received from my family, friends and fellow Brethren I offer my heartfelt thanks.
To be able to write this article is living proof that a blind person, given the chance, can maintain his or her place in the community.
To be able to contribute and do their share with equal regularity is gratification enough.
William R. Stirling, P.M., Acting Secretary, No. 1228, Provincial Grand Committee.
Bro. James Riley, R.W.M. 1888-89.
In his recent lecture to celebrate the 125th. Anniversary of the Lodge, Bro. Andrew McAlpine, P.M. Secretary, touched on the subject of perhaps our most famous Master, Bro. James Riley. Bro. Riley`s story is remarkable but few Lodge St. Bryde members will have heard of the man let alone the fact that he was one of the most influential industrialists of his time.
Andrew McAlpine has taken time to further research and expand on his original notes to compile this article for The Right Angle.
To receive information relating to events which happened over a century ago is an exhilarating experience. When it is accompanied by a P.M.'s Jewel belonging to a brother who was Master of a Lodge in its formative years is a dream come true for any Lodge historian.
This is exactly what occurred in 1993 thanks to James Riley, the grandson, who, on a visit to Moffat from his home in London, made enquiries about a Lodge St. Bryde and was given the name and address of the Lodge Secretary. A package containing a jewel in its original box, which belonged to his grandfather, duly arrived and is now proudly exhibited in the Lodge display cabinet. This was followed by information relative to the professional career of Bro. James Riley P.M. – by all accounts a remarkable man. James Riley was born at Halifax in
1840 and, after receiving a fair education at a local school he commenced work as a millwright and engineer in that town. Then he found his way to Middlesborough where the production of iron and steel was gaining some prominence, particularly at the well-known Ormesby Works where he became a Foreman. His great natural ability and application to duty was soon recognised when in 1869 he was appointed to the Management of the blast furnaces of the Askam Iron and Steel Company at Barrow-in-Furness.
From this time his advancement was rapid, for at the beginning of 1872 he was appointed to take charge of the Landore Siemens Steel Company and at the end of that year he had succeeded in producing spiegel iron from the manganiferous ores of the South of Spain thus overcoming a scarcity in the manufacture of this iron from Germany due to the Franco-German War. In 1874 he became General Manager of the Landore Company in Wales where he worked with Sir William Siemens, one of the most eminent scientists of the time, and he was able after experimentation to overcome the great difficulties of manufacturing a good quality of open-hearth steel. Such pioneering work resulted in the successful production of the "new material", as it was then called, of mild steel with its
greatly enhanced qualities of softness and ductility. By 1875 James Riley was able to respond to the challenge of Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, Chief Naval Architect of the British Navy, to prepare and read a paper on this "new material" to the Institute of Naval Architects. This resulted in the company being contracted to supply mild steel for use in the construction of naval vessels, the first two of which were the "Iris" and the "Mercury" built at Pembroke Dockyard. Not content
with this James Riley perceived that this type of steel was also suitable for tinplate manufacturing and a revolutionary step in the production process for the tinplate trade was put into practice at his behest.
In 1878 James Riley was appointed as General Manager of the Steel Company of Scotland, an appointment which led him to taking up residence at Brooklands in Uddingston in the early 1880s. The grand houses in the Avenue there were newly built and much sought after because of their close proximity to the N.B. Railway Station. In his important position such a well-chosen location gave him access to the steel works at Newton and Blochairn where he had the means of popularising the production of mild steel in Scotland. This he did do to the great benefit of the shipbuilders of the Clyde and he elsewhere introduced and established its use for boiler-making, bridge-building and for a variety of other purposes. No where else was this more evident than in providing the steel for the construction of the Forth Rail Bridge, in reference to which he accepted responsibility to meet the challenges that such a great and innovative structure would provide.
Needless to say, he met them all successfully. Whilst he earned enormous respect in his professional life James Riley also endeared himself to the many acquaintances he made in his personal life. This description of him will testify to that - "endowed with a nature full of kindly feelings towards his neighbour, with a ready wit and happy sense of humour, having an endless fund of anecdote
at his command, it will be easily understood that his company at all convivial gatherings was eagerly sought after." - and it was his friendship with two Glasgow lawyers, one of whom was the Secretary of The Prince's Lodge of Glasgow No. 607, which led him to be Initiated into that Lodge in 1884. But the lure of his local Lodge was to prove too strong and he was Affiliated into Lodge St. Bryde on the 13th October 1887, certainly this would appear to have been done to have him nominated as Master of the Lodge as this was duly approved a fortnight later and he was installed as R.W.M. of the Lodge on Thursday, 24th November 1887. As this Installation was also the Consecration of the new Masonic Hall at the Royal Buildings, Uddingston, which was carried out by
the P.G.M. Bro. Colonel J. Clark Forrest, it proved to be a wise choice and one that was to revive the early promise shown by the young Lodge St. Bryde. He held the Office for the two years listed as 1888-89.
Before, during and after his time in the Chair of the Lodge James Riley made many valuable contributions to the literature of his profession, and he invented and patented many modifications and improvements of plant employed in the manufacture of steel. One of the most valuable of his inventions was first introduced at Blochairn - it was a cogging mill for rolling slabs for the production of steel plates. Hitherto, this type of work was performed by hammering. Indeed, at Beardmore's Parkhead works there was a giant of a hammer named "Samson", a wonder to all who saw it, but this revolutionary cogging mill displaced the old hammering system by doing the work more quickly, efficiently and cheaper. So much so that it attracted many visitors to Blochairn during the visit of the Iron and Steel Institute to Glasgow in 1885.
It later prompted that august body to make James Riley their vice-president and to award him with its chief mark of distinction - the Bessemer Gold Medal. James Riley resigned his position with the Steel Company of Scotland in 1894 to take up
the office of General Manager of the Glasgow Iron and Steel Company. A more important post in that his new charge embraced his managership of collieries, blast furnaces, malleable-iron works and steel works.
After his appointment the steel works of the Company at Wishaw were very largely remodelled and they embodied modifications to their open-hearth
Siemens' system, peculiar to themselves and to Scotland, which resulted in an operating system for working the fluid metal direct from the blast furnaces to the melting furnaces. In 1889 one of the more important of his papers on "Alloys of Nickel and Steel" attracted a great deal of attention at home and abroad and was, in reality, the cause of the adoption of nickel steel for armour, gun-forgings and a variety of other purposes. During his years in the profession James Riley
held many important positions - a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers ; vice-president of the Iron and Steel Institute ; a member of the Council of the Institute of Naval Architects ; metallurgical representative for Scotland on Lloyd's Technical Committee ; and the first president of the West of Scotland Iron and Steel Institute, a position he held for three years after its formation in 1892.
He had always displayed a keen interest in questions relating to labour, and it was mainly due to his efforts that the Scottish Manufactured Iron Trades' Conciliation and Arbitration Board was established. He moved back to England in
1900 to manufacture iron and steel on his own account at the Richmond Works, Stockton-on-Tees, but not before the presentation of an address and a cheque for £500 was made to him for "the eminent ability and zeal displayed by him during his twenty-two years in the West of Scotland."
Despite the many honourable positions that he held, there is no doubt that his two years as R.W.M. of Lodge St. Bryde No. 579 was a source of great pride to him. The Minute dated 11/9/89 recorded - "RWM Bro. James Riley had kindly presented the Lodge with the superb Masonic clothing then worn by the Master and Senior and Junior Wardens consisting of Aprons and Gauntlets. A vote of thanks for this generous and timely gift was given."
At the meeting of 12/3/90 a letter from Bro. James Riley with regard to the presentation of a Past Master's jewel humbly acknowledged - "I really do not see why this should be done as a mark of the good feeling of the brethren. It is unnecessary for I am glad to believe that that feeling exists and will not be increased or diminished by the present…. There is no ground for giving me the present for valuable services to the Lodge. I should blush if the presentation
were offered on any such ground…. Assuring you and the brethren I very highly appreciate the good feeling it is desired to manifest….".
Bro. James Riley P.M. died at his residence at Harrogate on July 15, 1910, at the age of seventy years. Four years after his death, and in memory of their distinguished first president, the West of Scotland Iron and Steel Institute established the "James Riley Medal", an award for papers on original research in connection with the iron and steel industry. A lasting tribute to the life of a true craftsman.
Bro. Andrew McAlpine, P.M., Secretary.
Over the last few years Freemasonry has come under fire from almost every direction. It seems that everything that happens must be a Masonic conspiracy or at least have some Masons involved. The Government has stated openly that it views Freemasons with suspicion and has encouraged Local Authorities, The Police, The Legal System and Armed Forces to track these people down and ensure that their names are kept in a proper Register. This is exactly the way that Freemasons in Germany were monitored during the 1930`s by the Nazis.
However, it seems that the easy target that never makes any response to public criticism is at last responding - and winning points! Lord Elgin, Past Grand Master recently took a Department of a Fife Local Council Office to task over job application forms which asked if the applicant was a Freemason - he won and the application forms were withdrawn.
Recently a man charged with an offence stated in a Sheriff Court that he could not receive a fair trial as it was likely that Freemasons were conspiring against him in the Police, the Procurators Office and indeed the Sheriffs Office. The woman Sheriff dealing with the case referred it for a Scottish Parliament Committee and before we knew where we were an East of Scotland M.S.P. was publicly supporting a review of the case and pledging his support to what read like a witch hunt. A short time later he withdrew his public statement saying that he had been misinformed.
Recently in England, Lincolnshire Constabulary Chief Constable challenged the legality of a register of Freemasons under the new Human Rights Act. A voluntary survey of Freemasons in the Lincolnshire force produced a 62% response - almost double the average response rate of 36.6% conducted in 32 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. Only 1.5% of those responding in Lincolnshire said they were in the Craft, 88% said they were not Freemasons, while 10.5% declined to answer either way.
A report to Lincolnshire Authority said that the Home Office wanted to see if a second voluntary questionnaire, or a compulsory survey, would achieve a higher and more satisfactory result.
But the Chief Constable made it clear that he would not make public the information gathered in the first survey - he had pledged that individual names would not be revealed- and that any second survey would make it clear the information would be made available.
The Chief Constable said, "I am not and never have been a Mason. People who work in areas of public life, including police officers, judges and politicians, have a duty to behave with absolute integrity." However, he felt that because of "concerns expressed about Freemasons" police membership of a Lodge should be reported and stored confidentially by the Force. He added, "It should be examined when circumstances suggest that membership of a Freemasonry Lodge was relevant in any set of circumstances, and with reasonable safeguards, made publicly available." He also said that, "Prior to this happening, however, the legal position under the Human Rights legislation should be established, so that so that requiring such information was not only possible, but also enforceable".
M.O.D. "withdraws" its Instruction on Masons. The Treasury Solicitor, acting on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), has stated that a Defence Council Instruction (DCI) relating to Freemasonry has been withdrawn.
This follows a High Court application by Wing Commander Peter Harborne, a Buckingham Mason, requiring and requesting a judicial review of the DCI. The application was backed by the ruling body of the United Grand Lodge of England- the Board of General Purposes- and the case was presented by Mr. Michael Beloff QC.
The argument in the application came down to three points - that the DCI was unfair discrimination, disproportionate and illegal.
Within an hour of the application to the High Court, a letter was received from the Treasury Solicitor, acting on behalf of the MoD, saying that the DCI had been withdrawn.
Grand Secretary Bro. Jim Daniel Commented: "This is a considerable achievement. However, we have left the application with the High Court and sent a letter to the MoD saying that it will not be withdrawn until we have proof that it has been withdrawn, and a notice to that effect sent to all those who received the original DCI, and that our costs are met".
The Defence Council Instruction set out guidance governing the membership by members of the armed forces of societies such as Freemasons. It contained such references to Freemasonry and membership of the armed services as "disparate loyalties", "a destabilising influence", "undue influence" and being of a "secretive nature".
The continuing question of Freemasonry and the Human Rights of its Members to the same equal rights as all other Members of our Society will no doubt be topical in future months. The Right Angle will try to keep the Brethren of our Lodge and those readers of our Magazine informed of further developments.
(March 2001)
Grand Lodge Ad Hoc Report.
Bro. Andrew McAlpine, P.M., Secretary writes for The Right Angle on the subject of the Ad Hoc Report.
"The status quo is not an option".
A stark warning, perhaps, but the quotation taken from the report by Grand Lodge Ad Hoc Membership and Education Committee is an honest and realistic conclusion of many months study and work by the members of this Committee who have produced very sensible and dare I say radical, recommendations to their remit on Membership and Education.
The categories under which the
recommendations
They are, Retaining
Debate and discussion has taken place and should continue for . . . .
"The Committee emphasises that this Report is merely a starting point".
The November Communication of Grand Lodge will give a good indication as to the commitment of the Scottish Craft in general and Grand Lodge in particular towards the future of Scottish Freemasonry.
The first
and Honourable Society. Implementation this time around requires
"....
In order, therefore, to stimulate
debate further it is to be hoped
that the pages of The Right Angle will be used to project how best the Reports recommendations can be implemented not only by the Lodge but by Provincial and by Grand Lodge.
The status quo is not an option,
neither is an absence of thought
Andrew McAlpine. P.M. 579