On the 16th April 2024 W Bro Tom Gordon was presented with a certificate exactly fifty years after to the day is initiation into Lodge Palatine.
W Bro Tom, who is a retired pharmacist, went onto become master of the lodge in 1981 and subsequently held the offices of Treasure and Almoner, a role which he relinquished in March of this year.
In his distinguished career, W Bro Tom’s first appointment was to Provincial Senior Grand Deacon. He was later promoted to Past Provincial Grand Registrar and later to Past Provincial Junior Grand Warden.
While presenting the certificate, Assistant Provincial Grand Master W Bro Gordon Craigs, who is also Secretary of Lodge Palatine, reminded W Bro Tom that whilst holding the office of Senior Warden in 1980 he had fractured his wrist. When asked to confirm how he had managed to suffer the injury, W Bro Tom replied that he had “fallen off a Space Hopper”!
W Bro Tom is a member of King Edward VII Chapter as well as a member of the Rose Croix and was a member of Ashington Mark for twenty-nine years.
At the festive board the Worshipful Master, W Bro Joe Potts, presented W Bro Tom with a bottle of whisky on behalf of the lodge. In thanking the brethren, W Bro Tom thanked the brethren for their support over the years, especially W Bro Joe Grant, the lodge’s most senior member.