In June 2022 Mark Holloway PPrSGW and Martin Stewart travelled to London to attend the United Grand Lodge of England quarterly business meeting.  

 

Unbelievably, the trains ran on time with Mark travelling from Wigan and Martin from Stoke on Trent. Mark had booked the tickets for both journeys, this was the first of many things that resulted in Mark meeting Tanya. Mark had not attended the quarterly communications before and booked the return trains at 8pm, he discovered after booking the tickets that the meeting would finish at around noon! 

 

Quarterly communications ended at lunch time and Mark and Martin had lunch in Covent Garden, then looked around Covent Garden, they had a pint or two sitting in the sun outside the Prince of Wales and at 4pm they made their way to the Café in Great Queen Street to pass away an hour or so, until the Organ Concert (starting at 6pm) in the Grand Temple that Martin had booked, after having found out that they had several hours to wait until their trains departed from Euston Station. 

 

The Café was full of Freemasons and Mark and Martin waited a while for two seats to become free. Another of the many things that resulted in Mark meeting Tanya was that the Stuart Flynn (senior warden of Chivalry) should have been with Mark and Martin, sadly he had not been well enough to make the trip so when a seat became free next to Mark Tanya (the only lady in the café) came over and asked if the seat was free (if only Stuart been there!) Mark And Martin said it was and they started chatting, it transpired that Tanya had recently been initiated into Lodge Gordon No 49 that meets in Hanley Masonic Hall in Hanley, close to where Martin lives. 

 

After Chatting for an hour or so Mark had learned that Tanya also had a ticket for the Organ Concert so he asked if Tanya wanted to sit with them, to which she replied she would be happy to do. During the course of the conversation Tanya had given Martin her card as she sang in Staffordshire Military wives choir so that Martin could contact her if he knew of a lodge in Stoke that would like them to do a concert for them. Tanya also gave Mark her card, but said that they would not be able to do a concert in West Lancashire (was there another reason for giving Mark her card?) Mark reciprocated and gave Tanya his card! 

 

Arriving in the Grand Temple they were surprised to find that there were only around 40 people attending the concert this did not spoil the concert by Gerrard Brooks who is a Professor of Organ at the Royal Academy of Music. The concert was greatly enjoyed by Mark, Martin and Tanya and the hour seemed to pass very quickly. As they left the wonderful headquarter of Freemasonry, they said it had been good to meet and Tanya said goodbye to Mark and Martin who hailed a cab and made their way to Euston Station. 

 

Shortly after boarding his train Mark received a text from Tanya saying “I hope we talk again, it was lovely to meet you and Martin. Thank you for sharing so much” The rest is history for after nearly two years of seeing each other Mark married Tanya in April 2024, they held their wedding reception in O’Briens Tea Rooms which is on the ground floor of Ormskirk Masonic Hall and provides the catering services for the Lodges that meet in the Hall. 

 

Tanya is now a Master Mason and has joined the Order of Women Freemasons Lodge Joyus No 18 in Liverpool and is looking forward to enjoying her Masonic interests as does Mark. 

Members of the Order of Women Freemasons once again joined with members of the United Grand Lodge of England London Freemasons to parade through the streets of the City of London in the 2023 Lord Mayor's Parade when around 150 groups and floats take part in a three mile-long procession to mark the Lord Mayor’s first full day in office. 

 

The UGLE London Freemasons have committed to raising £3 million for London’s Air Ambulance Charity and London’s Air Ambulance Charity is proud to announce that the London Freemasons, long-term supporters of the charity, have pledged to make the largest single donation of their helicopter fundraising appeal . The Freemasons have had a long-standing relationship with the charity and their support over the years has enabled the service to be there for approximately 11,000 Londoners since 2016. 

Members of the Isle of Wight Lodge were busy arranging a number of charity fundraising events. They, along with family and friends, enjoyed fun and friendship at a ploughman’s lunch and coffee morning. Both events raised fabulous amounts for charity. 

 

Further north in Luton members of the Order’s Luton lodge had a great time with friends old and new at a barbeque organised by the Master of the Lodge and her husband. They turned their garden into happy memories of the Jubilee and Coronation. Through the generosity of everyone who attended a wonderful amount was raised for charity. 

 

To raise money for their chosen charity Faversham Abbey Lodge in Kent hosted an afternoon cream tea - scones, strawberry jam, cream and cakes were in abundance whilst members of all the OWF Norfolk and Suffolk Lodges joined together to raise money for their charities at a joint Sunday luncheon. Again - all raising money for charity.