Palatine Lodge No. 97

We have very much picked up where we left off pre-pandemic, and have been fortunate to welcome two new members to the Lodge via Initiations at our January and February meetings.  We have a third Initiation to look forward to at our March meeting and we then switch our attention to Raising some of our current Fellow Craft members.

We still have quite the list of potential members that have been patiently waiting, and we thank them for that.  A plan is in the making as to how we might get them in to the Lodge without asking them to wait too much longer.

December is always our Installation Meeting, and was once more on this occasion.  However, this year was different in that our current Worshipful Master, WBro Paul Staines, has remained in place for a third year (two being the usual limit these days).

The past two years have been stilted, for obvious reasons, and so all involved with the Lodge felt it correct that we should ask Paul to continue, which he was glad to do.

I am minded of what I wrote back in December 2019 when he was first installed.

I thought it was time I posted once again about our meetings!

Samuel Peter Austin, Junior (1842 -1925)

One of the River Wear’s most famous shipbuilders, Samuel Peter Austin, was initiated into Palatine Lodge, No 97, on March 27th, 1868. He played an active role in the Lodge, becoming Worshipful Master in 1873, Treasurer in 1875 and received the honour of Past Provincial Junior Grand Warden (PProvJGW).

The entry for Samuel Peter Austin in Palatine’s Membership Record

Peter Riddle Grey Phorson was initiated into Freemasonry on the 14th of February 1901 and became Worshipful Master of Palatine Lodge in 1906.

Palatine Membership Record