At Southport Masonic Hall, a celebration was held for a well-travelled and extremely distinguished member of Duke of Connaught Lodge No 2919. Don Cox has been a long time, and extremely hard working, pillar of the lodge. The respect and affection held for Don was evident even before proceedings began with the brethren warmly greeting each other with smiles outside the lodge room, and large number of visitors having made a special effort to attend. This included a large Provincial contingent including Assistant Provincial Grand Master David Thomas and his team, who had made the journey to Southport to make the presentation and take part in the celebrations.
The lodge was first opened by the immediate past master Dave Colley, who promptly conducted the business of the lodge prior to the main event of the evening. This being concluded the lodge was opened in the third degree and the Provincial contingent then proceeded in with great fanfare. David Thomas being accompanied by the group chairman Phil Stock and grand officers. The procession was orchestrated perfectly by the ProvDepGDC Ryan Modlin, and included two senior members of the lodge, Lee Martin and Adrian Hughes, proudly acting as Provincial deacons for the evening. Dave offered the gavel of the lodge to David Thomas who accepted it and then gave an outline of Don’s life.
Don was born in Liverpool in November 1930. His father was a hairdresser and his mother was a housewife. Don has one older sister who is four years older than him. Tragedy struck early in Don’s life when his father’s ship was torpedoed at sea in 1940. Don still remembers the family going down to the docks to try and hear any news. Don went to Tiber Street School then, after a scholarship, to St Margaret’s Anfield. This was near the football stadium and Don mostly enjoyed the football, beginning a lifetime passion for sport. Don left school at 15 and first worked in a shipping office. He then went to sea at the tender age of 17 with a Liverpool shipping company. His first trip was a 9-month journey around West Africa and the USA encompassing New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Norfolk, including a rather special trip to the British Officers Club at the Walforf Astoria in New York.
The lifestyle suited Don and he ended up staying at sea for nearly 20 years. In 1951 he changed company but stayed at sea, taking in the Canaries, Madeira, Dakar in Senegal and the Congo. During Don’s journeys he worked as a ship’s purser, looking after the money and the ships manifests and cargo. The life was very glamorous and Don very much enjoyed the life at sea, especially as much of his trips were during the period when extensive menus and silver service in the dining saloon were the norm!
Don met his lady wife Maureen at a dance in Liverpool on a Wednesday afternoon in 1958. Don always went dancing on a Wednesday afternoon when he was onshore as that’s when the nurses went! They soon fell in love and married on December 1959. The marriage was an extremely happy one and they had two children, Julie and Martin and five grandchildren. Don is very proud of all his grandchildren as they are or about to go to university.
In 1963 Don was promoted to Fleet Superintendent and came ashore, living in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, and ever the sportsman he played football and cricket for the town. While there he went to night school for four years to become a qualified shipbroker, and in 1966 became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Shipbrokers. After a few years, Don was headhunted and sent back to Africa, this time Nigeria (1968) via Ghana (1967). He was in Nigeria for the Biafran War (also known as Nigerian Civil War), where Don had a difficult but important job on the Lagos wharf looking after food coming in from charities. Don’s next posting was to Port Harcourt as Agency Manager before he was promoted yet again and sent to Freetown in Sierra Leone as Managing Director of the Shipping Company. The adventures continued in 1978, when Don was sent to Jedda in Saudi Arabia with nothing except an extensive overdraft facility and guidelines to start up a shipping agency. He had to find, not only his own house, but also set up a business from scratch locating an office, staff and completely new clients! He was then expected to operate the business all in Arabic, for which he learnt Arabic fluently from scratch starting with a rather basic 2 weeks school in London. He was in Saudi Arabia for several years, and once the business was a successful going concern his company moved him back to Lagos. He finally called time on his illustrious career and retired in 1983, where he returned to the UK.
Unable to stand still, Don joined a government scheme where successful businessmen went into small companies to help them. He went into a small travel agency, which rather shockingly was still working with an old-fashioned manual till! Don put his usual energy into the project and built it up to four shops, just as his retirement project. Following this he went to be a Councillor for the local council in Halsall, eventually becoming chairman. He was also asked to take over as Chairman of Homewatch and was involved in restarting the program. During this time Don was also a keen golfer. He had played a great deal in Sierra Leone and post-retirement he was captain and on the Board of Hillside golf club. His best handicap was an impressive 11, and he won a number of competitions over the years!
While in Nigeria, it transpired one of Don’s rival managers was an old friend who introduced him into Freemasonry. Don was initiated into Port Harcourt Lodge No 3881, in Nigeria, but following the English Constitution, on 30 June 1974. He continued his Freemasonry in Sierra Leone with Rokel Lodge and Chapter. On retiring and moving to Southport, Don attended a family gathering where he learned that his Southport based cousins were both Freemasons. Soon after in February 1986 Don joined Duke of Connaught Lodge. This was very much to the lodges benefit as Don soon employed the same energy to Freemasonry he had in other areas of his life. Don became master in September 1991 and after going through the chair he was secretary for four years. He also served on the Southport Committee of the Tithebarne for 25 years. For these efforts he was promoted to PPrSGD on 20 May 2002.
After the description of his rather impressive life and career, which enraptured the brethren present, Don was handed his certificate by Phil Stock and presented to the lodge room to heartfelt applause. The gavel was then returned to Dave Colley who closed the lodge.
The evening proceeded to the festive board and a description of the evening cannot pass without reference to the speeches. Phil Stock first rose to thank David Thomas for coming and conducting the presentation in such a knowledgeable and heartfelt way. David Thomas, after thanking Phil, the grand officers and his own team then seamlessly turned to toast the principal guest of the evening. Duke of Connaught Lodge then resumed the floor as Dave Bradbury rose to raise the toast to Don. He had first met Don in 1984 and his over-riding memory of Don was what a true gentleman he was. He still practiced the old-fashioned custom of doffing his cap and was always of exemplary conduct, especially when ladies were present. He went on to entertain the room with tales of their time together, with the over-riding theme being how hard-working and committed Don was. In fact, this was the first year Don had ever missed the installation. He then presented a card to Don which had been signed by the guests present before standing tall and with clear pride raising the toast to the celebrant.
The final word of course belonged to Don, who rose and with a smile began to regale the attendant brethren with tales of his extraordinary life and journey in Masonry. He rightly noted not many Masons end up in lodges 1,000 miles from where they got initiated. That put him in a unique position to entertain those present with different and surprising customs and anecdotes from life and Masonry across the globe, and entertain them he did! The depth and skill of story-telling from a man of Don’s experience is more than can be given justice in one mere article, as Don danced between Liverpool, Africa, the middle east and even Ipswich Football Club games, leaving the brethren roaring with laughter and wanting more! In the end the celebrations continued long into the evening as all applauded this most excellent of Masons, and the integrity, work ethic and gentlemanly conduct he perfectly embodied.