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GETTING HEALED

Bloke

Premium Member
@Bloke. Why is its call the "United" GLoV? Were there more then one GL that formed it? Like the ancients and moderns?

Sent from my LG-H811 using My Freemasonry Pro mobile app

Very sharp pickup.

There were three regular Constitutions working here (and irregular French Freemasons - although I don't know a lot about them and their ilk)... working from memory - firstly, Melbourne was founded in 1835 as an agricultural city and port, but flourished during the Gold Rushes of the 1850's becoming a significant and wealthy city. By 1860's Australia's largest and wealthiest - indeed the first Federal Parliament (1901) was held in Melbourne. Seth Copin, a theatre entrepreneur and of the Irish Const, formed Grand Lodge Victoria in 1883. Of the three Consts working here(under District GMS) the English was by far the biggest, with Scots and Irish far behind. Coppin failed to attract the English Lodges - but despite that, there was a lot of inter-visiting; indeed Freemasons were often excluded in one of the European Const and would just visit or join other European Const - it was all very loose - but also parochial at the same time. Once GLV was founded, Coppin presided but could not get the number of Lodges he wanted, it was basically the Irish who supported GLV - but we do have warrants on the walls from that GL signed by Coppin; it was not a tin pot show but a legit GL. Sir William John Clarke, was a hugely wealthy and well known Victorian businessman, philanthropist, MLA and community leader- and a Freemason... I just googled for the dates I was after to make sure I was right but "William was also a prominent Victorian Freemason and was elected provincial grand master of the Irish Constitution in 1881 and district grand master of both the Scottish and English Constitutions in 1884, a unique record at that time. In 1889 he became the first grand master of the United Grand Lodge of Victoria, an amalgamation of the three branches. In 1885 he had largely financed the building of the Freemasons' Hall in Collins Street." So, here was have a District Grand Master of the three major Grand Lodges working here, and, cutting a long story short, he was able to united all of four Constitutions (UGLE, Grand Lodge Scotland, Grand Lodge Ireland, Grand Lodge Victoria) into one - critical in that was attracting the English Lodges - but when he did - we became United Grand Lodge of Victoria with Clarke as our first GM. He was not just an impressive Freemason, but businessmen and his stamp was left in many ways - including World Test Cricket - it was on his property in Sunbury (now an outer suburb of Melbourne) that the Ashes were born (it is a cricket thing. .)

One cool thing which I've mentioned before, we still have one holdout working under UGLE - which is often used as a bolt hole for Freemasons who have a problem with UGLV or it's leaders. This is what our GL says about them http://www.freemasonsvic.net.au/profile/x/x/combermere-lodge-e-c

Wow... looking at that link - I know the Sec quite well - he's also Vict Const.. many members of Combermere are.. it's great to go and visit a foreign lodge in your own city - much cheaper than an air-fare !
 
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