MEN WHO HAVE PLAYED AN IMPORTANT PART IN THE BUILDING UP OF A LIVING BROTHERHOOD

Thanks are extended to Bro. Mick Walker for the submission of this page

BROTHER JOHN ARCHDEACON, R.O.H.

    The character, ability or importance of any member of the R.A.O.B. cannot be judged unless the background of his work is known and understood. Brother John Archdeacon rose to prominence in the Buffalo Order in the years following 1890. He was a Licensed Victualler in the City of Manchester, and the portrait used in the "Historical Review" compiled by Brother Billy Rose, shows a man with a square cut, determined face, neat in appearance, looking directly at the camera with firm set eyes, mutton-chop whiskers, the white "polo" collar of the period with a bow-tie and the starched front which was the customary adjunct to the "polo" collar. The impression created by this portrait is that of a man to whom the pursuit of an ideal based on true principle would be important.

    In those days the Grand Lodge met fortnightly in London. This fact made it impossible for the provincial lodges to be represented either with regularity or in correct relation to their strength and importance.

    Representation at Grand Lodge was direct from the minor lodges in the metropolitan area and direct from the mother or provincial lodge in the large towns outside London. Such an arrangement gave control of the Order to the minority, which consisted of the Brethren in London itself, and the fortnightly Grand Lodge Meetings forced the provincial majority to use "resident delegates" to represent them in Grand Lodge. These "resident delegates" were brethren living in London, so that the metropolitan minor lodges obtained a double representation.

    Brother John Archdeacon was in the forefront of what became known as the Manchester Federation; a grouping of lodges in Lancashire and the North-Midlands designed to bring about more democratic control of Grand Lodge. During the same period Brother Leonard Aulton was actively engaged in Walsall and the Midland area, and Brother Wilson-Marsh in the South. At the Westminster Convention of 1895 they were successful in securing membership of Grand Lodge for all brethren who had held the Office of Provincial Grand Primo.

    It is a strange reflection on the course of history that the move of 1895, which gave the ex-officio P.P.G.P. vote in Grand Lodge as a counterbalance to the mass pressure of minor lodge delegate representation from London where there were no Provincial Grand Lodges, has become, in its turn, the object of attack by present day reformers, who allege that in modern times the P.P.G.P. vote is undemocratic in an assembly based on representation.

    Their success at the Westminster Convention inspired Brothers Archdeacon, Aulton, Wilson-Marsh and their provincial friends to seek further curtailment of the London privileges. Brother Wilson-Marsh was the elected Grand Primo for 1897, the first provincial brother to hold the office. The discussions became so bitter that the following Convention was brought forward one year, and met during Brother Wilson-Marsh's tenure of office.

    At the Cardiff Convention in 1897 the provincial brethren were successful in carrying a resolution to make Grand Lodge movable, and for the next three years the meetings were to be held in Birmingham. This decision led to great controversy, and stormy meetings of the Grand Lodge were held in the months following Convention.

    With Brother Leonard Aulton as Convening Secretary, Grand Lodge met for the first time in Birmingham on November 18th, 1897, and the Metropolitan lodges rejected its authority. Brother John Archdeacon was the first Grand Primo of England to be elected in the provinces. His Grand Lodge controlled three hundred and twenty-two minor lodges and twenty-three district or provincial lodges. The district or provincial lodge was really number one or mother lodge of the particular district, and the other lodges were offshoots from that mother lodge which exercised control over them as a parent body rather than by the democratic method of elected delegates to a Provincial Grand Lodge which we know to-day.

    At the Cardiff Convention the decision to bring Grand Lodge from London to the provinces was carried by eighty-six votes to sixty. Twenty-nine provinces had been represented by one hundred and fifty-five delegates at that Convention, and twenty-six of these twenty-nine provinces remained loyal to the decision to move to Birmingham.

    The newly constituted Grand Lodge decided to hold meetings monthly, giving a greater opportunity for reasonable representation. It is significant that the January meeting of 1898 gave unanimous approval to the scheme put forward by Brother Aulton for the building of an Orphanage for the R.A.O.B. Thus the earliest major decision of Brother Archdeacon's year of office was to create a National Benevolent Scheme which in itself provided the greatest impetus to the steady growth of the Order following the removal of Grand Lodge to a provincial City.

    The only previous National Benevolent Scheme had been the creation of a Central Benevolent Fund in 1874, and little is known or remembered of its activities. In actual practice, the working of the early Grand Lodge was very similar to the present day working of a Provincial Grand Lodge, and confirmation of degree raisings formed a very important section of the work. There were very few members holding the Fourth Degree of the Order, but it was no surprise when at their February Meeting in 1903 Grand Lodge sanctioned the elevation to the Fourth Degree of Brother John Archdeacon. This brought to its culmination the career which had begun when he was initiated in Shakespearian Lodge of Liverpool on August 5th, 1879, raised to the second degree in the same year and to third degree in the Union Lodge, Manchester, on January 18th, 1882.

    He was present at the first Convention of the Order in Derby in 1888, and in his final three Conventions was elected member of the Rules Revision Committee.

    Brother John Archdeacon lived for ten years after the transfer of Grand Lodge from London. He died in December 1907 and there could be no better epitaph than the words written by Brother Billy Rose in his "Historical Review" when recording the death: "This was the noblest Roman of them all; his life was gentle, and the elements, so mixed in him that Nature might stand up say to all the world: 'This was a Man'." He was buried in the Layton Road Cemetery, Blackpool, and the Manchester Province erected a Memorial Stone above the grave, which was unveiled by Brother J. Gordon, K.O.M., on January 23rd, 1909. In her acknowledgement his wife wrote to the Grand Secretary, and I conclude this brief summary with the actual words of Mrs. Archdeacon taken from that letter. "You have given him many honours in his life of which he was justly proud; and you all know he was worthy of those honours, and I shall treasure them while my life lasts. You all know John Archdeacon loved the R.A.O.B.; his heart was with you in all your meetings, his very soul was in the Order. You never called upon him to go North, South, East or West but he was ever ready to fight your battles and try and bring everything to an amicable settlement; if ever defeated it was an honourable one. I am sure you all must miss his kind and happy face. To his friends he was always true and faithful. To his foes, if any, he was ever just. I do hope you will keep his name and memory green. He was just one of Nature's noblemen. The monument you have erected over his remains will speak to everyone of the love and affection you had for him in life, and in death you wished to honour him".

Further articles to follow.........................