Atherton Lodge No 4488 held its annual Installation with an abundance of visitors and distinguished guests. The principal guest was Assistant provincial Grand Master Andrew Whittle, accompanied by PAProvGM Antony Bent, Malcolm Parr and Leigh Group Chairman Jonathan Heaton.
David Hughes the WM and the DC was William Molyneux. The ADC Graham Bottomley escorted the distinguished guests into the lodge room in his usual efficient and amusing style, this obviously set the tone for the meeting in a very commendable and relaxed manor.
Andrew was introduced to David who politely offered the gavel to Andrew asking him if he fancied doing the ceremony on his behalf, as was expected it was returned with a smile. David did the whole of the installation ceremony for master elect Daniel Craig in a wonderful calm manner that eventually enabled Daniel to have a perfect journey into the chair of King Solomon.
Daniel looked very comfortable in his new role as WM and performed the rest of the ceremony impeccably. The working tools where all done by those junior members of the lodge in a very confident and well-versed manor.
Andrew gave fraternal greetings on behalf of the Provincial Grand Master Mark Matthews expressing that he was delighted with the way all the brethren made a great effort in their practices, especially those younger members who gave the explanation of the tools to the Master, then wishing Daniel all the very best for the ensuing year as Worshipful Master of the Atherton Lodge.
Seven charity cheques were presented to Andrew by Daniel that the lodge had allocated £2,115 to be divided as follows; £400 St James Place Charitable Foundation, £400 Macmillan Cancer Care Nurses, £400 Wigan and Leigh Hospice, £400 Bolton Dementia Support Group, £300 Leigh Masonic Hall Building Fund, £100 West Lancashire Freemasons’ Charity and £115 to the Leigh Group Charities Fund. Andrew then thanked the lodge brethren on behalf of the recipients of those charities.
Daniel Craig went to school at St Edwards College in West Derby where he stayed to complete his A-Levels, he studied politics, physics and economics at Oxford University graduating in 2004. He started his career in Manchester with the Bank of New York before moving into Wealth Management. He worked for St James’s Place eventually became Director of Kingsford Wealth Management he worked in financial services for 20 years. He lives with his partner Stephanie and three children; he uses a lot of his spare time at Golborne Sports as he is Chairman of the Football Club as well as coach for one of the open age teams and Emilia’s under 12 girls’ team.
He was introduced by his brother who is a member of a lodge in Windsor, who was introduced to a member of Atherton Lodge, who happened to be Len Hart, and they both realised that they had many mutual acquaintances, also at the time had played football for Daten for many years and Len was chairman of the club so it seemed a good fit for him. His Masonic journey was fairly straightforward, he eventually became a member of Atherton Lodge, he was initiated in 2016 and raised in October 2017.
With the ceremony of installation complete, the distinguished guests then retired at the first rising, followed by those preliminaries to close the lodge in peace and harmony, the final exit being the brethren eager to get their refreshment at the festive board. At the festive board, there was the abundance of humour and laughter that Atherton Lodge is well known for, all the brethren and Andrew had the most enjoyable evening with many items of having uncontrollable laughter.
The formal toast was proceeded by Andrew who thanked the brethren of the lodge and visitors for a wonderful afternoon with the toast to himself and to that of the master and brethren, also mentioning the importance of the lodges and their survival using the introduction of the Members Pathway, and more importantly asking family, friends and colleagues about become a Freemason. Ultimately there was a mention of the benefits to new junior members joining the Royal Arch Masons.
