Age Is Just A Number At Benevolent Lodge!

Benevolent Lodge 446, meeting at Wells and Mendip Museum, saw history being made at their recent January meeting. Norman Davies was welcomed as a joining member – in his ONE HUNDEREDTH AND FIRST YEAR! Norman was born in December 1924 in Peckham, S-E London, the youngest of 3 siblings. His brothers were Stanley and Reginald (Reg). They lived above the family sweetshop in Peckham, which sold sweets, loose from large glass jars, home-made ice cream and an assortment of other products. His mother looked after the shop and his father was a postman serving the West End of London.

Norman was educated at All Saints, Margaret Street, also in the West End, where he became a senior member of its choir, famed throughout the world for its excellence. In 1940, one year after the outbreak of WWII, at the age of 16 he joined Phillips Electrical, based at Croydon, as their first apprentice in electro and mechanical engineering. The company was involved amongst other things in the manufacture of radio transmitters and receivers used by the RAF in bomber aircraft such as the Avro Lancaster and the Bristol Blenheim. His apprenticeship was however cut short when he was called up by the Army and subsequently posted to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), where he rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant. On demob from the army, he re-joined Phillips to become their first ever Training Officer and subsequently Regional Manager for Eastern and Southern England with the newly formed Engineering Industry Training Board (EITB).

Norman became a Freemason on 8th March 1975, when he was initiated into Addey & Stanhope Lodge 5501 meeting at Freemasons Hall, where both his brothers, Stanley and Reg were already members. Stanley having previously achieved the rank of SLGR.

He became its Master in December 1984 and his brother Reg was the Installing Master. He visited Somerset 18 months later with both his brothers to see his son Barry Davies initiated into Benevolent Lodge. He was a frequent visitor in those early years, often singing the Master’s Song and sometimes, by request, the Hippopotamus Song (Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud!)

Upon his retirement he moved with his wife Vera to Derbyshire and joined Oakover Lodge No 1324 based at Ripley, before finally returning south.

The Deputy PGM of Somerset Ben Batley presented Norman with a framed Certificate signed by the PGM Ray Guthrie, congratulating him on his 100th birthday and celebrating 50 years in Freemasonry. Ben said it was an honour and a privilege to make the presentation and wished him well for the future.

Article by: Barry Davies – Benevolent Lodge 446