universities, 45 which sought, in the words of a circular proposing the formation of a lodge for old boys of a small London grammar school, to weld « in the closer ties of fraternal good will those friendships which so many of us formed during our School life ». 46 The symbiotic relationship between school life and modern freemasonry is encapsulated by an article on a school lodge in the Aldenham School Magazine cited by Paul Rich, which declares that « I wonder if you really knew what life at school was all about until you joined ». 47 A recent history by Christopher Tyerman of Harrow School, where Sir Winston Churchill was educated, emphasises the central role of freemasonry in school life, noting that « Between 1885 and 1971 headmasters tended to be freemasons, as did many governors and often powerful groups of masters and housemasters ». 48 The school chapel was festooned with masonic symbols; in 1937, the Headmaster gave the boys a half-day’ s holiday at the request of the Grand Master. 49 Tyerman also notes that freemasonry was important in affirming the group interest and professional solidarity of schoolmasters. 50 This was not only the case in public schools. Dina Copelman has studied the teachers of the elementary schools run by the London School Board, which was set up in 1870. 51 The majority of these teachers were women, many of them married. 52 Like their public school colleagues, the male school board teachers used freemasonry to affirm their professional and social status. 53 In 1876, the Crichton Lodge was founded by a group of teachers and officials of the London School Board, including its President and Secretary, and established other lodges comprising chiefly teachers in South London. 54 These means of displaying middle-class credentials were not available to women teachers, and their social and professional status was more tenuous.
45
J. G. Taylor, A Short History of the Old Sinjins Lodge( No. 3232), Chelsea: George White 1935, pp. 5-6; Quentin Gelder,“ School Freemasonry:“ A Very English Affair”“, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 110( 1997), pp. 116-44; Douglas Knoop, University Masonic Lodges, Sheffield: J. W. Northend 1945; M. J. Crossley Evans,“ The University of Bristol and Freemasonry 1876-1976 with particular reference to Lodge No. 1404”, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 110( 1997), pp. 163-76.
46
John F. Nichols, Notes on the History of the Old Sinjins Lodge No. 3232, Battersea: E. C. Freeman 1957, p. 5.
47
P. J. Rich,“ Public-school Freemasonry in the Empire” p. 177.
48
Christopher Tyerman, A History of Harrow School 1324-1991, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000, pp. 362- 4. In Tyerman” s view, the importance of freemasonry at Harrow reflected the school” s strongly Anglican and anticatholic ethos:“ Anglicanism was important to Harrow because it formed part of its settled world view. The anti- Catholicism was partly explained by this, as was the acceptance of freemasonry which was embedded in Harrow” s clerical as well as lay fabric. It would not have seemed odd for the freemason classicist J. W. Moir( master 1922- 48) to urge Moore [ the Headmaster ] in 1947 to appoint an openly freemason clergyman to the staff. The decline in anti-Catholicism, although not paralleled by an equal decline in freemasonry, forms one of the sharpest transformations in Harrow” s religious identity [ since 1970 ].”: p. 462.
49
Ibid., p. 363.
50
Ibid., p. 386.
51
Dina M. Copelman, London” s Women Teachers: Gender, Class and Feminism 1870-1930, London: Routledge 1996.
52
In 1886, the teaching force of the London School Board comprised 2,076 men and 4,065 women: ibid., p. 50.
53
Unfortunately this is not discussed by Copelman, and would be a good area for further investigation.
54
Appendix, Document No. 8, below
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