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Fitting in a busy Masonic year
As Worshipful Master of Alma Mater Lodge No.1492 I was particularly active in Freemasonry in 1963. One of the pleasurable duties of a W.M. is to visit other Lodges in Cambridgeshire, particularly the meeting at which a new W.M. is installed. Most Cambridgeshire Lodges met in the Isaac Newton Masonic Hall, Corn Exchange Street, Cambridge but other venues were in March, Linton, Wisbech and Whittlesea. I did as much visiting as I could, sometimes fitting it in with visits to companies, educational and other institutions on behalf of M.I. but more often than not taking a day or half-day off so that I could meet the commitment.
Three or four of the meetings I attended were in London. For example after attending a SIMA meeting at the Connaught I went in the late afternoon to the adjacent Masonic H.Q. to a meeting of Cranbourn Lodge as a guest of my next-door neighbour at No.4, Len Pinner. I was also invited as W.M. to a University of London Lodge and to an Oxford & Cambridge Lodge.
We begin weekly visits to Mother in Berkshire hospital
In February 1963, within a day or two of moving into our new house, my mother had a stroke. After unsuccessful treatment at Battle Hospital, Reading, she was moved to Wokingham Hospital, Berkshire. There, apart from a few weeks in Henley Hospital while the ward in Wokingham was being redecorated, she lay paralysed on her left side for the next 5 years.
Of her children, only the eldest son, John, and myself, next in age, remained in England. We both visited mother at each weekend, one of us on the Saturday and the other on the Sunday and vice versa. In July 1963 we made the first of our visits to sort out Mother's house at 2 Causeman's Way, Tilehurst, and in due course we sold it.
My mother's live mental condition greatly compensated for her physical defects. She acted as a communication link between one member of the family and another, at home or overseas, and kept the family together. In 196? we were told that she hadn't got long to live. Alan and Mary came over in a day from the two sides of Canada and Ron came by Comet in 48 hours from New Zealand. It proved a false alarm - mother recovered and continued to act as a family link.
Our weekly 100 miles round trip was quite a drain on our time and energy but we did not consider cutting the commitment down for two or three years. Brother John and I and our wives and often our children then visited alternate weeks.
Fatal accident at work
There was a tragic incident in the pre-fab building which I occupied along with the X-Ray department. In one room was an image intensifier laboratory in charge of a Mr. Crafer. As he was going out of an outward-opening glass door, it was pushed violently back towards him by some lads rushing to get their lunch. The glass splintered against his chest. I found him sitting in his laboratory pulling a piece of glass out of his chest. I asked that an ambulance be called and reported the incident to Ray Burnett, who took over. The colour began to drain from Mr. Crafer's face and he grew faint. He died soon afterwards in St. Albans Hospital. The irony is that the only equipment then with a chance of detecting the location of the glass sliver was the X-Ray image intensifier equipment on which he was working.
Breathing exercises
My asthma was playing up some somewhat and in early February 1963 I was treated in the Physiotherapy Department of St. Albans City Hospital, where I learnt some valuable new breathing exercises.
The STAL Agreement comes to an end
Problems with STAL continued. First the advance payment by STAL of the consultancy fee for the 1st Quarter of 1963 was withheld. Then, at the end of January 1963 I received a letter from J. de T. Vischer about costings which purported to show not very hopeful prospects for the Oscilloscope. The basis of STAL's costing and its relationship to an arbitrary market price was such that the project was killed stone dead. 63a30 .
The essential problem was that John de T. Vischer's brother Peter, who I had not met during the negotiations and with whom I had to deal in the implementation of the agreement. He expected me to carry out detailed work on producing the designs and on one occasion he even requested, citing the agreement, that I repair an item of STAL equipment. In February 1963 I had a meeting with Peter Vischer and then a letter from him. I wrote in reply that I had made it clear when the consultancy agreement was being drawn up that I could only act in a general advisory role and proposed terminating our agreement. I would have liked to have helped STAL in whatever way I could but their demands on me had been excessive and I had to give priority to M.I. 63c04 .
Three weeks later I received a letter from J. de T. Vischer outlining the history of my consultancy with STAL and accepting my proposal to terminate our agreement. 63c27 . I wrote in reply to J. de T. Vischer countering points in his history of the consultancy with STAL. 63d09 . Our final communication was a letter from me to J. de T. Vischer declining his offer at half cost of components bought for the Beck Oscilloscope saying it was doubtful if I would continue with it as I had taken on a professional commitment. I also thanked him for his invitation to visit STAL offices at any time. 63e20 .
Sheila complimented by a Q.C. and a College Head at the first-ever Ladies Dinner
In June 1963 I instituted a Dinner for Ladies - the first in Alma Mater Lodge's 89-year history. It was held in the Senior Parlour of Gonville & Caius College. Sheila gave an excellent speech in responding to the Toast and was much complimented on it, for example by Joe Gamgee Q.C. and Arthur Armitage, President of Queen's College. 63f22 .
Kenneth Dibden brought in from the cold
Kenneth Dibden, former Secretary of the Cavendish Laboratory, soon came back from his Ankara post and got a job as Secretary of the University of London Appointments Board, whose Chairman was Percy Dunsheath. I noticed that he had not attended Alma Mater Lodge on his return. I thought it right to get him involved again so during my year as W.M. I went out of my way to invite him to do some work in the Lodge, from which he went on to be appointed to one of the continuing offices.
Lodge Business, 1963
At the January meeting of Alma Mater Lodge there was a Lecture. There should have been an Initiation but this was postponed until the February meeting because the candidate could not be present - this gave me more time to learn my part. 63a26 .
In the February 1963 meeting the Initiation took place. Also, revised Bye-Laws were up for approval, subject to Grand Lodge approval. 63b23 .
Following the meeting I received a delightful letter from Lucan Pratt (Senior Tutor, Christ's College) about Lodge business.
At the May meeting the candidate continued on his journey into Freemasonry. 63e18 .
There was much business at the November 1963 meeting of Alma Mater. Jack Reynolds and Bob Harriman came as my guests and there was a Peruvian Freemason present. Two sections of the Lectures were given and a Tradtional History recited was Kenneth Dibden - this is when he became involved again in the Lodge. 63k01 . Tributes were paid to Bob Wolverson, a member held in great affection by the Brethren. Also, the By-Laws were again up for approval, Grand Lodge requiring some changes to those submitted earlier in the year. The following day I gave the customary W.M.'s Luncheon in the Senior Parlour at Caius, in honour of Richard Westwood, who had been elected as my successor.
Finally, after a Grand Lodge meeting at Great Queen Street there was a very pleasant Cambridgeshire Province lunch attended by Sir Henry Thirkill, Dr. Harry Nourse, and L.W. (Tommy) Thompson
M.I. loan to replace car beset by woodworm and dry rot
The family car had for some years been a Riley 1.5 with a custom-built wooden body. In the late 1940's, the manufacturer of Araldite adhesive wanted to test its durability in Estate cars. On this basis they got a Riley chassis diverted from export and had the Araldite and wood constructed locally. In due course the company had no further use for the car and sold it to my friend John Hammond, from whom I purchased it around in the mid-1950's.
The car was very good to drive but time and the weekly journeys to Wokingham were taking their toll. The Araldite was intact but the condition of the wood was deteriorating rapidly. Moreover, Ray Burnet had asked me to do more visiting to Government Departments, Educational Institutions and other organisations for which a more presentable car was desirable. Accordingly in May 1963 I wrote to M.I.'s Secretary/Accountant (Bill Brian) about the woodworm and dry rot in the car and referring to the request that I should increase my visiting. 63e21 .
I suppose I had hoped for a company car to be allocated to me but instead I was offered a 4-year interest-free £500 loan towards the purchase of a car. 63e27 . A few days later, on our way to Wokingham Hospital, I called in a local garage to leave a wheel with a punctured tyre to be repaired and came out having bought a nearly-new Singer Gazelle.
Old friends from Cambridge, new friends in Harpenden
Many of our social occasions during 1963 were, not unnaturally, with our Cambridge friends. Among other things we wanted them to see our new house. Thus there were family visits to and from Gabriel & Ann Horn, Norman and Do Rider, John and Joan Hammond. Our circle of local friends increased - for example we had dinner with Tom and Beryl Lant, who lived just round the corner from us, in Sauncey Avenue.
One unusual social event for us was when we went to the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham, for their Summer Ball as guests of Michael & Gisela Potok.
Miskin, the builder
The new building at Longacres was put up by a firm called Miskin. Around 1963 I had the pleasure of sitting next to him at a Lodge dinner in St. Albans. I do not think he was the same Miskin, also in the Construction industry, who nearly a quarter century later was one of my proposers for the Freedom of the City of London.
Becoming an IPM is good for the soul
Early in December 1963 I installed Richard Westwood as W.M. and he invested me as Immediate Past Master (IPM). 63l07 . There is something good for the soul in becoming IPM - having climbed the ladder steadily and then for a year becoming the king-pin in the Lodge, all of a sudden it seems as though you are nothing in the Lodge.
Earlier in the year I had visited a Past Master of the Lodge, R.B. Seymour Sewell F.R.S., at his home. He was too frail to come to a meeting and indeed he died during my year. After the new W.M. had invested his Officers I had the honour of being presented with his Past Master's jewel.
