Our history

Aylesbury Lodge was Consecrated on Thursday 31st May 1923 by R W Bro Sir Edward Inglefield, the Provincial Grand Master of Buckinghamshire. We are the Daughter Lodge of Ferdinand de Rothschild Lodge No 2420.

Aylesbury Lodge was the first to be Consecrated in the Masonic Temple at Ripon Street, Aylesbury, but subsequently met for 17 years at the Bulls Head Hotel. However, at the meeting of 14th November 1940 notice of Motion was given to move the place of meeting to the Masonic Temple. The Lodge met there for the first time since its Consecration on 9th October 1941 and we continue to meet there to this day.

Between its Consecration and the Second World War, the Lodge Initiated 32 new members. These included Clerks, a Journalist, School Masters, Farmers, a Chemist, Insurance Agents, Engineers, a Commercial Traveller, a Waiter, Salesmen, Civil Servants, Tax Inspectors, a Printer, a Butcher, an Accountant, a Peer of the Realm and a Member of Parliament.

The Lodge continued to meet during the War, ten new members being Initiated between 1939-45. These were Gordon Garratt, a bookshop manager; Wilfred Jerome, an Engineer Commander in the Royal Navy; Leonard Martin, a police inspector; Stanley Baggett, an architect; John Minster, a chemist; Jonathan Alanson, a manager of a paper department; Sidney Herbert, a farmer; Thomas White, a cost accountant; William Jerrams, a farmer and William Whitlock, an engineer.

The photo below is of a portrait of W Bro Giacomo Gargini. He was proprietor of the Bull's Head Hotel which formally stood in Aylesbury's Market Square. W Bro Gargini was a founder of Aylesbury Lodge and its first Senior Warden. You will see his name and signature in our archive pages elsewhere on this website. He became Mayor of the town in 1932. W Bro Gargini commissioned and designed the gold Mayoral Chain of Office, which he donated to the town. W Bro Gargini died on 30th July 1938. He is buried in Aylesbury's Tring Road cemetery.

Flowers at W Bro Gargini's funeral in 1938 and the gravesite today.

The Mayoral Chain bears Masonic emblems, reflecting W Bro Gargini's membership. The same chain is still worn by the Mayor of Aylesbury on ceremonial occasions.