Today we celebrate with W.Bro John Carr on reaching an incredible sixty years of uninterupted membership of the Craft. Although living in South Africa, with his wife Anne, John has continued his membershipo all these years and his well deserved certificate was received, on his behalf, by his brother W.Bro Thomas Carr.
John, a native of the town of Alnwick and a Duke’s School Old Boy, has been a member of Alnwick Lodge No.1167, which meets at Alnwick Masonic Hall, since his initiation in June 1961, at the age of twenty-six, and was recently elected to honorary membership in June of this year.
After working at Shilbottle and other collieries, and gaining a Diploma in Mining and a M.I.Min.E, two or three years after joining the Lodge, his development work, as a Chartered Mining Engineer and a qualified Colliery Manager took him away to the Midlands, firstly to Derbyshire as one of the NCB’s field trial engineers at their experimental establishment, specialising in coal ‘ploughing’ machinery and having the results patented. John subsequently worked in the hydraulic equipment division of English Electric, followed by two years at an electronics company selling specialist machinery, prior to setting up his own business in Leicester producing technical support material for the likes of Flymo.
Whilst there he joined Semper Eadem Lodge No.3091, of Leicestershire and Rutland Freemasons, where he was a member for many years prior to returning to his chosen profession to join a company in the Boart division of the giant Anglo-American Corporation called Diacarb in Zambia, in 1974, firstly as Sales Manager then General Manager. During that time, he served as President of the Zambian Iron and Steel Industry Employers Association and led the National Wages Negotiations.
He wasted no time becoming a member, firstly of Shannondale Lodge No. 816, of which he is now an honorary member, and also of Cashel Lodge No.863 both of which operated under the control of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and which met in Ndola and Luanshya, respectively. John was installed as Worshipful Master of Shannondale in 1979 and invited his brother Thomas, also of Alnwick Lodge, to attend the event. John was heavily involved in other Masonic activities including becoming a member of the Royal Order of Scotland and Rose Croix.
In 1981 John was transferred to Ireland and appointed C.E.O. of Boart Europe with responsibility for companies in England, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Italy and Spain, prior to promotion, in 1984, to senior roles in Anglo-American Group companies, Boart Longyear and then SECO, Steel Engineering Company, in the Transvaal of South Africa, eventually becoming Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa with over twenty companies reporting to him.
John topped off his career by the appointment as Alternate Director to The Deputy Chairman of the giant Anglo-American Industrial Corporation requiring him to travel extensively world-wide resulting in him being unable to practice as much Masonry as he would have wished, however, whenever he could, he would make a trip to England in order to make an appearance at his Mother Lodge in Alnwick, of which he is very proud to be a member.
Thanks go to W.Bro Thomas Carr, of Alnwick Lodge, for the submission of this article.
Congratulations to John from everyone at Northumberland Freemasons on your magnificent achievement.
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