Installation Meeting Of The Galen Lodge, No.2394.

Installation Meeting of the Galen Lodge, No .2394 .

^ TOTVVITHSTANDIi ^ T G occurrence of consecra-J tion of the Orchestral Lodge on the same evening , which prevented the attendance of many well known brethren , the annual installation meeting of the above lodge was very successfully held on Monday , the nth instant , at

Freemasons' Hall . A successful year of office had been concluded under the guidance of Bro . T . H . W . Iclris , and a new era was ushered in under the auspices of Bro . C . J . Strother , who was installed by Bro . Fred Bascombe , P . M . of the lodge and

of 1287 . Amongst members and visitors present were noticed : —Bros . E . C . Mulvey , P . G . P . ; C . J . Strother , W . M . ; T . H . W . Iclris , I . P . M . ; J . B . S . Lancaster , P . P . G . St . B . Surrey , Sec . ; W . J . Rogerson , P . P . G . D . C . Notts , D . C . ; Fred Bascombe , P . M ., Steward ; J . J . Arrow , S . W . ; W . J up p .

P . M ., J . W . ; A . W . Gerrard , P . M . ; J . H . Bidwell , P . M . 2120 , P . P . G . D . C . Surrey ; W . Croucher , P . M . 534 ; M . Whelan , 343 , Canada ; H . Stokes , P . M . 8 34 ; J . Gerson , P . M . 18 5 ; C . James , P . M . 15 ; A . Dyson , W . M . 194 ; J . H . Arrow , S . D . ; G . Peters , J . D . ; T . Cleave , 2662 ; R . Lang Sims ; G . R . H . Clark , Mus . Baa , P . M ., Orgt . ; J . H . Gradidge , Asst . Steward , and many others .

THE WORSHIPFUL MASTER , The proposition of a joining member terminated the lodge proceedings . The subsequent banquet was held at Freemasons'Tavern

, and was participated in by between forty and fifty brethren representing pharmacy and its kindred branches in many parts of London . The toast of " The Grand Officers , " in the absence of Bro . R . Clay Sudlow , who had attended the lodge for a

short time only , was responded to by Bro . E . C . Mulvey , P . G . P . " The Health cf the Worshipful Master , Bro . Strother , " was the occasion of complimentary remarks by Bro . Iclris , the I . P . M ., on his successor . The sight of Bro . Strother

always reminded him of the Galen motto , " Lift up your hearts , " for one could always do so in Bro . Strother ' s company .

In reply , the Worshipful Master felt , he said , much diffidence in responding to the toast of his health , which was induced not less by the Mattering remarks made by the preceding speaker , than for the reason that he was extremelv sensible of his comparative inexperience in Masonry ,

surrounded as he was by soman } - Past Masters of experience . He did not yet feel sufficiently an autocrat , he said , to rule his lodge without the full assistance of his junior officers . He hoped they would all , like a team , fall into their places , and that it would not be long before the lodge work would

have attained such excellence as to be an example for other lodges . In proposing the toast of " The Immediate Past and Installing Masters , " the W . M . said they had on the one hand a brother—Bro . Bascombe—so well versed in his work that

he felt some temerity in presuming to speak of it , while on the other they had in the I . P . M . a brother well known both in and out of the lodge , tha . t he had often been asked if Bro . Iclris was so elastic as to be able to Jill with credit so many positions at the same time . The brethren knew that

Bro . Iclris had not once been absent from his place in the lodge during the time he had filled the chair . It was with the assistance of such capable brethren that he looked forward with hope to the coming year . In reply , Bro . T . H . W . Iclris , I . P . M ., said that to be of service in Masonry , no less than in pharmacy , composed the highest aspirations of his life .

Bro . Fred Bascombe , P . M ., the Installing Master , in his reply , expressed his pleasure at having been able to instal a fourth Master into the chair of that lodge . His assistance was always , he need hardly say , at the disposal of the Galen Lodge . In alluding to the excellent performance of the lodge in its assistance to him as a Steward for the last

Benevolent Festival , he congratulated it on giving him more support than he received from his mother lodge , although the proportion of London members in that lodge was two to their one . The toast of " The Visitors " was replied to by Bros .

Dyson , Croucher , Cleave and others , while Bro . J . B . S . Lancaster , P . M ., P . P . G . St . B . Surrey , answered to the toast which stood in his and the Treasurer's name . He regretted that the last-named brother was not present by reason of illness , and in well chosen words assured the brethren of his

willingness to continue at his post . " The Healths of the Officers of the Lodge " was next drunk and fittingly responded to by the Senior and Junior Wardens , bringing to a close an evening in all respects befitting the excellent character of the lodge .

Bro . Charles John Strother , the newly-installed Master , has had a somewhat exciting and interesting life . Left an orphan within his first decade , having lost his father at the age of four and his mother at nine , at the instance of his guardian , the late Samuel H . Lindley , Editor of the Naval and Military Gazelle , he went abroad both to finish his education and earn his living .

At twenty-three he was assistant to M . Depaix , the King ' s chemist in Brussels , at the time when every effort was being made to keep alive the young Prince Royal , only son of the King of the Belgians . Afterwards employed in Germany and Parishe lived with three French pharmacists until the

, commencement of the Franco-German war , when he volunteered for the ambulance . He was in the Siege of Paris , and received the bronze cross for services on the field and in the ambulance of the French Red Cross Society . In 1872 he returned to London , becoming the manager of

E . R . Hartnell , the first " all-night " pharmacy in London . As correspondent for his guardian he was at Camden House , Chiselhurst , on the coming of age of the Prince Imperial , and was one of those who received a bunch of violets in the death chamber of Napoleon III .