Brethren of Ulverston Lodge No 7872 have celebrated the 50th anniversary as a Freemason of Peter Quirk, in the company of Peter Schofield, Assistant Provincial Grand Master, six grand officers, group chairman Alan Pattinson, group vice chairman Chris Gray, seven acting Provincial Grand Officers, nine visiting masters, indeed 74 brethren in total, it would be fair to say that the lodge room was packed.
After WM Tony Taylor had opened the lodge in the third degree, he welcomed Peter Schofield to the lodge, and offered him the gavel. Peter was delighted to accept and the celebration was under way with Peter Schofield giving details of Peter Quirk’s life.
Peter Quirk was born in June 1946 at 43 Ulverston Road, Swarthmoor where he lived with his father Tom and mother Frances. Tom was a crane driver employed by Vickers Shipyard in Barrow, mum Frances was a confectioner employed at Salmon’s Café in Ulverston. Peter attended Pennington Church of England Infants and Junior School in the village of Pennington. At the age of 11 he moved up to Ulverston Victoria High School for his secondary education where he remained up to the age of 15. During his school years he was a very keen sportsman with football becoming his main hobby. Goalkeeping was his speciality, and he kept goal for all the school teams at all ages during his education, ultimately becoming Ulverston School first team keeper, where he got the nick name of ‘the cat’ due to his great agility between the posts.
After leaving school, Peter secured employment as a machine operator working for K Shoes at their factory in Askam. During those early years of employment with the company he attended Kendal College of Further Education where he was successful in securing his City & Guilds, Lower and Higher National Certificates.
Peter’s reputation as an excellent machine operator was well known within the organisation and this, coupled with his high qualifications, was soon rewarded with his being offered the position of machine operation supervisor, being responsible for the supervision and management of 22 employees.
He remained in this position for 13 years by which time his reputation as an operations manager and the knowledge he now possessed was in great demand, so much so that he was approached by Ulverston Co-op with an offer to become their manager and buyer for the Shoe Shop Department within the organisation, where he remained for 10 years. At this time Ulverston Co-op was taken over by the much larger Cumbria Co-op Company and employment conditions were not quite so attractive therefore Peter took the decision to have a change in career.
Peter secured employment with VSEL as a security guard where he remained for a year before being offered employment in the SMITE engine testing facility in the main yard where he worked his way up to become senior clerk in the records office, where he remained for 17 years before retiring in November 2004.
It was back in the late 1960’s when, along with his friends, Peter was attending a Young Farmers’ Dance at Grizebeck Village Hall. A certain young lady caught his eye. This was, of course, the love of his life, a Miss Pat Ellershaw. Pat was a farmer’s daughter from Kirkby who was employed as a tax inspector at Barrow Tax Office. After plucking up the courage, Peter asked Pat for a dance, which she accepted. The relationship blossomed and following a suitable courtship Pat and Peter were married at Kirkby Church on 9 May 1970.
Interestingly, Pat’s brother is the father of Steve Ellershaw which, of course, makes him Peter’s nephew and it was lovely to see Steve on the evening in his capacity as an acting officer of the Province to help celebrate this wonderful occasion.
Pat and Peter made their marital home at 5 Park Side, Swarthmoor next to the late Gary Neal, with their back gardens adjoining the late Les Strackman. You could say Peter and Pat were quite literally surrounded by Masons.
Pat and Peter were blessed with 2 children, their daughter Catherine and son Ian. Catherine is a Staff Nurse at Furness General Hospital, who is married to David Kenrick also a Nurse at FGH and they live in Kirkby. Ian is married to Shari and works and lives in Kuala Lumpur as a teacher. They have bought a house in Holmes Chapel near Crewe and have plans to retire and move back to the UK in the near future.
The family is further blessed with 3 grandchildren. Catherine’s son Oliver who is a paramedic and lives in Birmingham and Ian’s daughters Sofina who is 16 and Iziana who is 15, both of whom are in full time education. Pat sadly passed in May 2022 a great loss to Peter and all the family. Following the sad passing of Pat, Peter moved to take up residence at Walney Promenade Cottage on the Island, before a final move to Parry Street in Barrow where he still resides to this day.
Later in life, Peter’s main hobby has become Freemasonry and he remains a very busy and active Freemason. However, he has also developed an interest in stamp collecting and has become a keen collector of Australian and Malaysian stamps building up quite a collection in the process. In his earlier life, Freemasonry was no stranger to Peter either, with father-in-law George Ellershaw being a founder member of the Ulverston Lodge No. 7872. It came as no surprise that Peter was proposed into Ulverston Lodge by his father-in-law George and seconded by Norman Woof.
Peter was initiated into the lodge on 14 October 1974 following a 3 year wait on the waiting list of the lodge, which of course at that time was about the average time you had to wait, such was the demand for men to join Masonry. He was passed on 10 March 1975 before being raised to the sublime degree of a master Mason on 8 September that same year. (The secretary then read an extract from the minutes of Peter’s initiation.)
Following his initiation, Peter progressed through the various progressive offices of Ulverston Lodge, all those offices he fulfilled with excellence, before becoming master of the lodge for the first time in 1998. It is fair to say that back in 2004, due to circumstances beyond its control, Ulverston Lodge struggled to maintain a natural progression of brethren through the office of master. As a consequence, Peter agreed to fulfil the office of master for a second time in 2004 which greatly assisted the lodge to manage its way through this temporary difficult period and allow junior members the opportunity to progress naturally through the progressive offices of the Lodge.
Peter held the office of charity steward from 1995 to 2003, a magnificent period of 8 years. He also held the office of lodge almoner from 1993 to 1994, 2003 to 2008 and again from 2022 to 2023, a wonderful period of 7 years dedicated service. Peter was appointed to the position of lodge mentor in 2023 the position he still holds today.
In Provincial Grand Lodge, Peter was appointed to PPSGD in 1997, promoted to the rank of PPGSuptWks in 2005 before promotion once again to the very high rank of PPJGW in 2011. Undoubtedly a just reward for all the hard work, commitment and dedication Peter has given to people less fortunate than ourselves and Ulverston Lodge in particular.
In the Royal Arch, Peter was exalted into Furness Chapter No 995 on 24 January 1995. He progressed through the progressive offices of the chapter before becoming first principal in 2011. He held the office of chapter almoner from 2012 to 2020 and 2021 to date, an incredible period of 11 years’ service. Peter joined Vale Chapter of Installed First Principals No 5256 in 2012 and remains a valued and well-respected member to date. In Provincial Grand Chapter, Peter was appointed to the rank of Provincial Grand Sojourner in 2017 before promotion to the rank of PPGSwdB in 2024, again, just reward for his commitment to Furness Chapter. Peter has also gained high rank in other Masonic Orders.
Peter Schofield concluded his oration by wishing Peter well and hoped for further achievements to add to the burgeoning list. After retaking the chair, WM Tony closed the lodge, to move the celebrations in the direction of refreshment.
Alms collected in the lodge amounted to £183.41 for Masonic Charities, and the raffle upstairs at the festive board realised £400 for the Building Fund. During the toasts and speeches at the festive board, celebrant Peter fondly remembered the night he was initiated. Other attendees on that night were Peter Gardiner and Les Preston, both recent jubilee celebrants in Ulverston Lodge. In fact, Les, who was tinkling the ivories on this occasion is 100 years old and still going strong. It must be something in the South Lakeland water!