Gloucestershire Comes to Somerset!

17/07/2023

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Rob Collins (Chairman) of The Somerset Branch of The Masonic Fishing Charity was invited to be the guest speaker at a Gloucestershire Mark Masons Lodge. St Hubert’s Lodge No 1998 is a Country Sports lodge attached to our very own Craft Country Sports Lodge Sylvanus 9741 here in the Somerset Province; both Lodges are travelling Lodges.

St Hubert’s held their meeting in the Nailsea Temple here in Somerset on the 15th of July, 2023.

Rob was asked to talk about The Masonic Fishing Charity and a discussion on Conservation and invasive species. This was good timing as it’s the Government invasive species year highlighting many things, especially the grey squirrel and its almost extinction of our native Red Squirrel.

Rob had this to say about the meeting:

“I will say the ceremony was first class; I really do enjoy the Mark Degree; the WM led his officers in fine style, and this was highlighted as The Gloucestershire PGM was there too. We moved on to the talk in the anti room, where I had my projector set up; many of these fine people were farmers and land owners. First, we started off with the Masonic Fishing Charity talk; this was very well received and had lots of debate in the Q&A section.

I then moved on to the Conservation and invasive species talk, focusing on Grey Squirrel Management and protection of our Native Red Squirrel and their Habitats. Again this was well received with lots of input from my peers and brother, especially enjoyed by their ladies who had a sea of questions for me; the boys went back into the Lodge to finish off lodge business. I remained in the anti-room and continued the talk on the red and grey squirrels; the ladies were very interested in this. I finished off the talk when the brethren came back to a standing ovation and rapturous applause from all.

The festive board was first class spent with the most wonderful people, the food and wine exquisite, the raffle raised some much-needed funds for charity, and the WM announced they were giving this money to The Somerset Branch of The Masonic Fishing Charity, the PGM then announces he will match it and give it to my branch too, he then thanked me in his speech for a very informative and interesting speech, I have a feeling I am going to be invited to the Gloucestershire Province to do another talk at an agricultural lodge.”