Today we congratulate Bro. John Robert Gormley on completing fifty magnificent uninterrupted years of dedication to the Craft.
John was born in October 1947 and attended Manor Park School, leaving at the age of 15 when he became a Trainee Manager at L & N Stores, before joining the Press Tool Section at the Metal Box Company in Newcastle and Carlisle. He subsequently returned to Prudhoe to work at Kimberley Clark as a Head Operator.
He met and married his wife, Lorna Hill, in 1968, having two children, Michelle and Anthony, and joined the Royal Military Police, in 1965, rising to the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major, and was posted to Catterick to set up a Home Defence Unit, and then subsequently to Chichester and Winchester within a Special Operations Unit. He took the role of National Parade and Standards Marshall from 2001 to 2021 and has travelled extensively across the UK, Europe and America.
John was initiated into Freemasonry, in October 1972, into Seaton Delaval Lodge No.4617, which meets at Seaton Delaval Masonic Hall, however due to his long service to the Armed Forces he did not progress. He has, however, remained a loyal member to the Lodge throughout his fifty years. When he was initiated in 1972, before undertaking his Second and Third Degrees he, and others, used to race down to the Hastings Pub, when they were kicked out, for parts of the ceremony they couldn’t be party to, returning just in time for re-admission and the closing of the Lodge.
Many thanks to W.Bros Donald Auld and James Campbell for the submission of this article.
If you have a story, event or news item you would like to have published on the Provincial website, or social media, please get in touch with our Communications Team at news@northumberlandmasons.org.uk