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 Earl Howe Painting

 

The restored oil painting of the First Earl Howe has now been re-framed and installed within the Hinckley Masonic Hall. this artwork, which has been under the care of the Freemasons of Hinckley since around 1985, dates back to around 1845 and had through the course of time suffered quite severe degradation and physical damage. When the Hinckley Masonic Hall underwent major reconstruction during the summer of 2011, the painting was removed for safe storage and since this time has been restored to good condition.

Earl Howe (Richard William Penn) lived in Gopsall Hall, near to Shackerstone in Leicestershire. He was Provincial Grand Master of Warwickshire from 1843 to 1852 and then Provincial Grand Master of the then Leicestershire Province from 1856 and became the first Provincial Grand Master of the combined Province of Leicestershire & Rutland in 1869 until 1870. He also served as a Deputy Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1844 to 1866.

In 1858 in order to help revive Freemasonry in Hinckley, he agreed to serve as Master of the Knights of Malta Lodge number 50 and upon his election he donated a Loving Cup to this Lodge. This Loving Cup is today displayed in the Provincial Museum on London Road in Leicester and once each year, at the Installation meeting of the Lodge, it is used by the Lodge members, as originally intended to "promote the happiness of the Masonic Body and to all mankind without distinction of rank and sect".

Earl Howe was a much loved and distinguished Brother who practised the meaning and teaching of Freemasonry outside the Lodge as well as in it. He was a great benefactor to the town of Hinckley and started many initiatives to help the residents when the "hungry 40's" hit the town. (The great depression when the framework knitters were short of work and many families were destitute). He also donated a great deal of money to repair, renovate and construct churches throughout the county.

Coincidentally, as Lord Chamberlain and confidante of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, he spent many months on the island of Malta in 1839, where the Queen had gone for the benefit of her health. There can be no connection between this visit and the name of the Knights of Malta Lodge, for that was adopted by at least 1828.

In his new position in the refurbished building, this painting will be seen by every Freemason when negotiating the stairs from the Masonic Hall and will serve to remind them of the history and heritage associated with the Freemasons of Hinckley.

CPR Training

 

A fully-automated defibrillator has recently been purchased for our Masonic Centre in Hinckley partly through the proceeds of our Christmas Party Night. Having such a high-tech resource it is clearly common sense to ensure we have members available who can back this up with some knowledge of it's use and the associated technique of cardiopulmonary resusitation, or more commonly CPR.

We have therefore run our first training session designed to give our members the necessary knowledge to enable them to put these skills into practice in the unfortunate situation where some one may possibly be suffering cardiac arrest on the premises. Accordingly around twenty "volunteers" attended this evening session under the expert tuition of Nigel Matthews. The evening session was both very informative but also fun even taking into account the seriousness of the potential situation that we were contemplating. As the building is multi-occupied, Simon Green and two of his regular staff, from The Green Rooms were also invited to participate as they could also face a similar situation when our equipment could also be called upon.

The defibrillator itself is located within the foyer of the Lodge room on the first floor and is easily recognisable. It is fully automatic and gives audible and visible instructions during use. However, as we learnt during our training, it stands alongside CPR to be most effective. Additionally in all cases, the first priority is to summon the help, via a 999 call, of the professionals who on arrival at the scene can take over from whoever is administering CPR and defibrillation; these things together can result in recovery of up to 75% of patients, without CPR and defibrillation the chance of recovery is dramatically reduced to somewhere around 10%. Speed of response in all cases is vital: if you are faced with this situation, then dial 999, start CPR and bring the defibrillator into use.

It is likley that further sessions will be arranged at Hinckley, the more Members are involved the better; you might save a life.

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