History of Saltley College Lodge
Civil Defence, Schools' Evacuation, etc., etc. It is to the credit of our members that the lodge continued to meet... and wa were lucky if we could get to a meeting, in uniform, or some dark clothing. We kept the Saturday morning meetings, mornings because of blackout, air raids and very crowded travel. Later we changed our dates to summer ones, and met on 28th June, 1941, 26th July, 1941 and 2nd August, 1941, with Henry Burchell as Master. These dates will be clearly in the memory of W.Bro. Albert Jacobs, (who still attends our meetings), for on those occasions he was the only candidate for the normal progression. We repeated this pattern of dates for 1943 and 1944, with John Alderson as Master. He remained as W.M. for the return to our 'Winter Pattern' and installed J.J. Hurlock as Master. This is the reason for the word 'TWICE' at the side of J. A. ALDERSON'S name on our Lodge Banner.
It is tempting to add a long paragraph on high-lights at our war time meetings and meals. One that I shall never forget was when we found the F.M. Hall had been damaged by a bomb blast....not seriously, thank goodness. Windows had been broken around the corridors, and the door of the room we were to use had been torn off. We were the only lodge to keep to the booking. We had a good meal with one waiter to each member (or thereabouts). I also remember it because I had been on duty in Coventry all night, had to stand on my train journey, and on the London tube.... and repeated the experience on the return journey.
At our wartime meetings too on occasion we had unexpected visitors.... sometimes for a very short time, sometimes to witness a ceremony, but never to the meal. On one occasion our 'guests' from the Grand Secretary's office, was a group of high ranking American Officers, with signs very different from ours. They only remained for a very short time. Some of our members believed one to be General Eisenhower. We could not confirm this, but he was at Bushey Park at that period.
During our 50 years we have registered 156 members, 10 Founders, 133 Initiates,
and 10 Joining members. (Three actually re-joined).
