ROYAL MASONIC TRUST FOR GIRLS & BOYS

President’s address at the Yorkshire N & E Riding Festival 2006

Held at York

On Saturday 20th May 2006 

Bro Provincial Grand Master, Assistant Grand Master and Brethren,

What a magnificent result!  Talking of envelopes, you deserve the Oscar for Best Actor today for kidding us all that you did not really know the result until you had opened that envelope.  It is marvellous tribute to you and to Gerry Coles, to whom you have already paid such a warm tribute, that all the members of your Province have responded to your leadership of this Festival in such a magnificent way.

I cannot resist your football analogy by referring to the fact that I was born just off the Fulham Road about half a mile from a football ground called “Stamford Bridge”.  Twelve months ago we were being entertained at Old Trafford and I think it is just as well that we are not there this year, Chelsea having won the championship for the second year running in its match against Manchester United.  What it does tell us is that in a sustained campaign, whether it be the football league or a Masonic Festival, success is founded on leadership. Success such as you have achieved demonstrates your ability to inspire loyalty and dedication over a sustained period. I did not know the result but I do know that your personal list amounted to £476,000 which is a tremendous tribute to you and demonstration of the loyalty your leadership has inspired. 

You already have paid tribute to your colleagues in the Province who have played a key role in that success and I must add my tribute to them.  However, this Trust is above all about families and I must also pay tribute to the valuable support that so many of us receive from our wives and families. 

For me Freemasonry is about two things.  The first is friendship and everything that that means in terms of mutual help and support.  One of the great pleasures that I derive from each Festival is getting to know the Provincial Grand Master and his team.  Certainly I and my colleagues from the Trust have gained enormous pleasure from working with you, Richard, and your colleagues and I thank you for your hospitality at the pre-Festival dinner last night.

The second is charity.  That moment in the initiation ceremony when we have each been called on to give in the cause of Charity is the one that, certainly for me, has left a lasting impact.  Clearly from the result that you have announced today, that has also made a deep impression on all of you as members of this Province who have worked so hard and given so generously.

What is it all for?  Well I hope by now that you all know what the Trust does but I would like to highlight four points:

• First, the four National Masonic Charities are working together as never before in facing the challenges of carrying out our trust and to achieve efficiencies in our operations to ensure that we meet the standards of best practice and to ensure that Freemasons are well served by all four Charities that they so generously support.  A major step has now been taken to relocate all four Charities in Freemasons’ Hall which will enhance that process and bring significant savings in the cost of administering the charities.  Our Treasurer, Bro Nigel Buchanan, who is with us today, has made a major contribution to bringing us to this point and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him publicly for the extremely hard work that he has devoted to that process to bring us to where we are today.

• Secondly, the Trustees of the Trust have been entrusted with a substantial endowment, which has been built up by the generosity of the generations that have gone before us since the foundation of the Royal Cumberland School 218 years ago.  We have a duty to pass on that endowment to the next generation, which must provide over half of our expenditure on the children that we support. Without that endowment we could not make the long-term commitments to the children of Freemasons and we are acutely aware of that responsibility and of the long-term commitment to each beneficiary.

• Thirdly, Freemasonry can be extremely proud of the fact that the Trust is the biggest charity in the country giving direct support to individual children, assisting over 1898 children in the last 12 months at a cost of some £7 million.  This compares to 749 beneficiaries when the Trust was set up in its present form in 1986. Over the last five years the Trust has provided over £600,000 to support children from the Province of Yorkshire and North & East Riding.  We recognise the need to review constantly and critically our procedures and the operation of the Trust to maximise the amount that we can give to support our beneficiaries. We must ensure that what we give is justified and meets our strict criteria.  It is a big job for our Petitions staff to monitor and justify every payment that we make. But it is not all about money and our case officers are well skilled in giving the families support in many aspects of the problems that they encounter. We have a daily dialogue with many organisations including the Department for Work and Pensions, local Health and Education authorities, together with specialist bodies dealing with children in need. It is a complex process but you would not expect us to do less.

In 2001 the Trust launched Talent Aid, a scheme to foster the talents of gifted children in the families of Freemasons.  In 2005, 68 young people received grants from the scheme and since its inception over £1.2 million have been awarded.  As an example of outstanding talent, we have a beneficiary from the Province, Demelza Stafford, whom we are continuing to support and who continues to go from strength to strength in her chosen career as a classical and opera singer.  She attended the original launch of the Festival in 2000 and gave a moving account of how the support of the Trust had impacted upon her own life. She has just commenced a two-year graduate diploma at the Royal College of Music and continues to reside in Ruspini House.  Her willingness to show her appreciation of the support she has received has been demonstrated on many occasions, despite her busy schedule. Personally, I find it very rewarding to hear her marvellous voice and to hear her speak so warmly about the help she has received.

• Lastly the Trust’s primary obligation is to help the children of Freemasons in need.  There is, however, a role to play in the wider community, funds permitting. Grants to non-Masonic causes are necessarily and deliberately limited and focused on two programmes:

• the support to 24 choristers at 21 cathedral schools, and

• the Lifelites programme set up to mark the new millennium which currently supports 34 children’s hospices with a further 5 expected to benefit in the next year or so.  The success of Lifelites has lead us to a point where the Trust has set it up as a separate charity in its own right with an initial endowment representing the balance of the designated fund that we originally set aside and able to seek Masonic and most importantly non Masonic support that will secure its future.

Day in and day out at the Trust we come face to face with the tragedies of human life.

Kimberley was only five when her father murdered her mother and then shot himself.  Kimberley found their bodies when she dropped off after school.  Robert was a sensitive teenager when his father died suddenly, the day after returning from a happy family holiday in France.  And Georgina’s mother turned to drugs when her husband left her.  The mother witnessed the murder of her dealer and was then gang raped by the murderers when she disobeyed them and went to the police.  Georgina has been in the care of her grandmother, a Masonic widow, ever since as her mother has now had to “disappear” under the Witness Protection scheme. 

We know that the grants we give to children like Kimberley, Robert and Georgina – and we know this from the visits made by our welfare advisors – can never ever restore their young lives to the way they were before the tragedy struck.  But, to quote Martin Luther, “it is better to light one candle than curse the darkness”.  Our grants and our pastoral care do bring some light into these damaged lives.

I would like to pay tribute to the hard work and the dedication of the staff of the Trust.  That cannot be better exemplified than by the loyalty and service of Bro Keith Hulks and I would like to add to the tribute already given to him by adding the appreciation of the Council of the Trust on the occasion of this last Festival that he will attend before his retirement later this year, after 44 years of service.

Brethren it is a great honour to be with you at this meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge and to celebrate your success with so many of you at the conclusion of your Festival on behalf of the Trust and the magnificent result that you have achieved. And I wish you a very happy and successful party celebration on 1st July – you deserve it.

Brother Richard, to you for your leadership and to all of you from the Province of Yorkshire N & E Riding for your achievement and generosity– “Thank you”.

It now gives me great pleasure to present to you Bro. Richard, a memento of the occasion as a token of our appreciation.