Freemasonry and Scouting Coming Together

Freemasonry and Scouting Coming Together

On Saturday evening 15 Feb. about 50 people including Freemasons, their families, and Scouts, gathered at the Kyabram Masonic Centre for a fun night of fellowship and celebrating our organisations.

We started with a simple BBQ dinner and plenty of conversations with an obligatory raffle, before moving into the lodge room for a series of presentations.

Peter Reade gave an awesome talk about the history of the first Baden Powell lodge in the world and the connection between freemasonry and scouting. An abbreviated version is at the bottom of this page.

Michael Perry shared a great story about John Orm and the emu eggs he carved and presented to Jubilee Lodge in 1923.

Parker St Clair talked about the Widows Sons and their work in the wider Victorian community.

Jessica Mitchell, Group Leader for the 1st Kyabram Scouts, led a presentation about what the scouts are doing in the community and how they’re developing the next generation of future leaders. Jessica expressed great gratitude for the support Kyabram Freemasons have given the 1st Kyabram Scout group over the past few years and how this has helped the scouts achieve their personal development goals.

It was a wonderful night that wouldn’t have been as successful without the help of Peter and Lyn Reade, Ross and Heather Coombs, Malcolm Coombs, and Suzanne Spencer. Thanks a bunch!

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The Link between Scouts and Freemasonry

Charles Archibald “Arch” Brookes Hoadley

Arch Hoadley was an Antarctic explorer, educator, scout leader and freemason. He was a geologist on Mawson’s exploration of Antarctica between 1911-1914 and Cape Hoadley was named after him.

On returning to Australia, he lectured in engineering at Ballarat School of Mines, before becoming the Principal at the Footscray Technical School where he remained until his death in 1947.

He joined Freemasonry in 1915 and, in 1921, joined the Boy Scout Association and became Scoutmaster of the reformed 1st Footscray troop.

While investigating technical education in the USA and Europe in 1924, he completed a course at Gilwell, England and was drawn to Lord Baden Powell's vision for the Scouting Movement. This training was invaluable a few years later in helping him organise the earliest Gilwell courses for Scout leaders.

As Scoutmaster, Commissioner for Training and Chief Commissioner (1927-1937), he set about implementing a vision for the whole person that was practical and appealed to Australian boys and young men at that time.

He was heavily involved in the Scouting movement for many years and was active in the creation and development of Gilwell Park in Gembrook, on land gifted to Scouting Victoria by the Russell family, and became the first Warden there from 1925 until his death in 1947. An annual scouting event, the Hoadley Hide, named in honour of Arch Hoadley (and originally held at Gilwell) is still held to this day.

In 1929 he returned to England as Commissioner in Charge of the Australian Jamboree contingent to the 3rd World Scout Jamboree at Arrowe Park in Upton. As it was commemorating the 21st birthday of scouting for boys, and the scouting movement, it was also known as the “Coming of Age Jamboree”. With about 30,000 Scouts and over 300,000 visitors attending, this jamboree remains the largest jamboree ever held. and also attended a world conference on adult education at Cambridge on behalf of the Victorian Education Department.

Feeling that the values of freemasonry and scouting were very much aligned, before the 1929 Jamboree, Arch Hoadley, Lord Somers and William Kennedy had discussions about creating a link between the scouting movement and freemasonry. While in England they approached Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the scout movement, for permission to use his name to create a new lodge. Baden-Powell, although not a freemason himself, agreed to their request

In 1930 the Baden Powell Lodge was duly formed with Lord Somers as the Worship Master and Arch Hoadley as the Deputy Worshipful Master. This created an enduring link between scouting and freemasonry. In 1998 Baden Powell Lodge had the privilege of having Michael Baden Powell (grandson of Lord Baden Powell and a life-long ambassador of scouting himself) as its Worshipful Master.  To this day, Baden Powell Lodge celebrates the scouting movement each year with a Founders Day meeting in February. All those attending are encouraged to wear scout uniform and, if the uniform no longer fits, then to wear their scout scarf. Rovers from local scout groups are also invited to attend the meeting.

Some Famous Freemasons

Sir Christopher Wren Isaac Newton George Washington

Benjamin Franklin Paul Revere Mozart

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Glenn Ford Will Rogers

Cecil De Mille Gene Autry Nat King Cole

Duke Ellington Rudyard Kipling Bud Abbott

Peter Sellars Oliver Hardy Arnold Palmer

Irving Berlin W.C. Fields Davey Crockett

Red Skelton J Edgar Hoover Roy Rogers

Harpo Marx Thomas Edison Col Parker (KFC)

Beethoven Winston Churchill Buzz Aldrin

Henry Ford Richard Pryor John Wayne

Clark Gable Don Rickles Ernest Borgnine

Harry Houdini Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Mel Blanc

Oscar Wilde Charles Lindbergh Robbie Burns

Rudyard Kipling

Other famous Freemasons:

Joseph Banks, Matthew Flinders. English Kings including George VI (Queen Elizabeth’s father and Queen Victoria’s husband - Prince Albert,

Australian Freemasons include: Graham Kenedy, Smokey Dawson, Robert Menzies, Ron Blaskett (Gerry Gee), Bud Tingwell, Bob Skilton (AFL) Ray Barrett (Voice of John Tracey in Thunderbirds), Don Bradman, Charles Kingsford Smith, Pastor Douglas Nicholls, Sidney Myer, George Coles, George Adams (Tattersalls), Wiliam Dymock (Dymocks Books), Alexander Fleming (Penicillin), Hubert ‘Oppy’ Opperman. Edward “Weary” Dunlop was a member of Lodge Liberation No 694 as well as Neville Smith (Past GM) “2IC of Board of Works” (Chief Engineer) known also for being the chief engineer of the Thompson Dam