Page 172 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

172 An Account of the Lodge of Nine Muses

4 September, 1939. Owing to the declaration of war between Great Britain
and Germany on 3 September, all Masonic Meetings were suspended till further
notice by order of the Grand Lodge.
64
With this sad epilogue the writer, bids farewell to the Brethren, not unhopeful
that should some younger brother, fifty years on, take up the tale once more, it
may be in a world which has learnt at long last to base its intercourse not on
distrust, destruction, and perfidy, but on those grand principles which have stood
down the centuries the unshaken foundation of the Masonic Order.
Taplow, September 1939

Continued 2009
After consideration by rulers in the Craft, the Wartime suspension was
withdrawn and the Lodge continued to meet at Grosvenor House Hotel, Park
Lane. During the hostilities the Brethren met, opened the Lodge between 11.00
a.m. and noon, and dined at luncheon in place of the accustomed evening banquet.
This continued until 1948 when the Lodge moved to the Piccadilly Hotel as it
had room to accommodate the Lodge’s own furniture and was prepared to provide
dinner. There are no menus from the war years.
At Installation meetings the practice of inviting a visitor to occupy a Warden’s chair
at the Board of Installed Masters commenced in March 1953 when Bro. Steeler, WM
of Emulation No. 21, was SW. In 1954 both Wardens were members but in 1955 W.
Bro Dollar the WM of Erin took the office. Apart from 1956 the practice of inviting
the WM of Erin or his representative to take the JW’s Chair has continued thereafter.
The minute book Covering the period from March 1977 to November 1996,
being among the items stolen during the burglary at Bro David Simpson’s Office,
the only direct record of the Bicentenary celebration is from the Signature book
and Summons covering the event. 65
However, during his term as Secretary, Bro. Martin Sutton gathered together an
almost complete collection of the Summonses covering this time, made handsome
photocopies of these together with the copies of the appropriate pages of the
signature book and compiled a substitute binder to accommodate them. This has to
suffice as a surviving record until such time as the book may fortuitously be found.

64 Alan Foxley.
65 This unfortunately includes the Bi-Centenary Celebration and thus we do not have as full
a record as desired.