Masonic Heritage

Over the years there have been many railway connections with Freemasonry.

Some relate to buildings. There are persistent rumours of Lodge meetings historically being held in London Underground's magnificent headquarters at 55 Broadway in London. There were certainly Masonic meetings held in many of the grand and majestic railway hotels in London and around the country. Perhaps most famously, the Great Eastern Hotel at Liverpool Street station boasted two particularly fine Masonic Temples - the Egyptian Temple in its basement, and the Grecian Temple on its first floor; the latter temple is still in use for masonic meetings and may also be hired as a remarkable dinner party venue.

Other connections arise through the Masonic membership of certain men who were prominent in the development and history of the British railway network. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (GWR), William Stanier (LMS), Sir Daniel Gooch (GWR), Bramston Beach (L&SWR), and Sir Edward William Watkin (GWR, GER, and the first Channel Tunnel, amongst many others) are just some of the names. See below, on this page, for their biographies.

Then there are the railway lodges. Many masonic lodges have been consecrated by railwaymen over the years, usually to serve for the masonic association of the railwaymen at a particular railway, or depot.
Many of these lodges are still alive and well today - see the "Railway Lodges" page.

Sir Edward Watkin, Bt, MP

Sir Edward William Watkin (1819-1901) became Chairman of nine different railway companies. He was a prolific railway founder, as well as a politician, serving as an MP for several constituencies, including over 20 years as MP for Hythe (Kent). He was knighted, and eventually made a Baronet. He built much of today's Metropolitan Line in London, as well as the Great Central Railway. But his most famous project was the Channel Tunnel. He completed more than 2,000 yards of tunnelling, but was stopped by the Government, who feared a French invasion through the completed tunnel. The project was eventually taken up, and completed, a century later. As well as his English projects, Watkin was involved in building railways in Canada, Africa, India, France, and Greece.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS

It is probably safe to declare I K Brunel (1806-1859) to be the most famous railway Freemason of all time. His pioneering engineering work, with railways, bridges, ships, tunnels, and other engineering projects has shaped our country, and his legacy is not mere history, but much of the infrastructure still in daily use around the British Isles.

Brunel was initiated in France on 12 April 1830. Although recognition between Grand Lodges was then less formalised than today, Brunel was issued with a certificate by the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) confirming that he was qualified to visit English lodges.

Richard Maunsell, CBE

Richard E. L. Maunsell CBE (1868-1944) was yet another leading British locomotive designer of the steam heyday of the British railways. Having worked on various British and Indian railways, he became the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SECR), and on the formation of the "Big Four" grouped railway companies in 1923, he became CME of the Southern Railway (SR), of which the SECR became one of the major constituent parts. Coming from an Anglo-Irish family, Maunsell was educated in Ireland, including Trinity College Dublin (TCD). He was awarded the CBE for his engineering contribution to the First World War effort. Maunsell's locomotives designs include many well-known and lauded models, such as the "U" class, the "Schools" class (pictured above, on a royal train), and the "Lord Nelson" class.

Maunsell is one of two railwaymen placed on this page "provisionally", because the clear evidence that they were Freemasons cannot yet be found, although there are many contemporary reports that make the suggestion.

James McConnell

James Edward McConnell (1815-1883) was the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) Locomotive Superintendent at Wolverton Works, which remains a major railway engineering centre to the present day. He designed many cutting edge locomotives for the LNWR, including the "Bloomer" class and the "Wolverton Express Goods".

He was already a Freemason when the idea was advanced of a Masonic Lodge for Wolverton's railway engineers, and McConnell agreed to become the Founding Worshipful Master of Scientific Lodge in 1860. The Lodge still meets in Wolverton today.

Flying Scotsman

The LNER class A3 locomotive "Flying Scotsman" boasts many masonic connections. The most obvious is that the engine was designed by Freemason Sir Nigel Gresley (see entry elsewhere on this page). However, the engine receives an entry in this section in recognition of what might have been. In 1996 Flying Scotsman was purchased by Oxford academic and businessman Dr Tony Marchington, who was also a Freemason (in the Apollo University Lodge No 357) and shortly afterwards became Assistant Provincial Grand Master for Oxfordshire. Marchington formed a company to create a visitor attraction in Scotland named "Flying Scotsman Village", and invested millions of pounds. The Company CEO was Peter Butler, the former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), and also a Freemason. After planning consent for the project was refused, the Company went into liquidation. Had the project not failed, Marchington had planned a series of Masonic special excursion trains, and even a new Lodge associated with the locomotive.

United States of America

This website is focused on the railway heritage of England & Wales in particular, and the British Empire in general. However, it should be noted that Freemasons also played prominent roles in the development and subsequent operation of the great railroads of North America. The locomotive illustrated is a consolidation type steam engine of the Santa Fe (more fully, the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway), one of the best known of all the American railways.

Samuel Thomas Bledsoe (1868-1939) was a lawyer specialising in the new field of railway law; later he joined the staff of the Santa Fe and began a second career, which lasted almost 45 years, and saw him ending his days as President of the Santa Fe (he died in office). Bledsoe is offered here as a representative of the whole field of American railroad Freemasons.

Grecian Temple (GER)

The Grecian Temple in the Great Eastern Hotel at London's Liverpool Street railway station. Widely considered the finest Masonic temple in London (outside Freemasons' Hall in Holborn) the ornate and intricate marble and gold leaf setting can be hired not only for Lodge meetings, but also for unusual private dinner parties.

The entire hotel is now a listed structure (grade II), and the Grecian Temple is also listed individually (grade I).

The hotel was constructed by the Great Eastern Railway and opened in 1884, to a design by the Barry Brothers. The Grecian Temple was built in 1912 at the personal expense of the Freemasons on the Board of Directors.

Sir William Stanier, FRS

Sir William Stanier FRS (1876-1965) is one of Britain's greatest locomotive designers. The son of a senior GWR designer last Swindon, Stanier also went into that company, serving as the number two in London, and later as Works Manager at Swindon. However, his talent was a valuable asset, seized upon by the country's largest railway, the LMS, where he became the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) in 1932. His enduring locomotive designs have become household names, and include the famous "Black 5", the "Jubilee" (pictured), and the "Princess Coronation" classes, amongst others.

Sir Nigel Gresley, CBE

Sir (Herbert) Nigel Gresley CBE (1876-1941) is another household name as a railway engineer, whose legacy also lives on in practical ways, as well as in the hearts of even non-railway British people. His classic locomotive designs the A1 and the A4 include locomotives which have captured the public imagination, including record-breaking engines "Mallard" and "Flying Scotsman". Gresley learned his trade at Crewe Works, and worked for several companies before settling into the role for which he is remembered, as Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).

Gresley is one of two railwaymen placed on this page "provisionally", because the clear evidence that they were Freemasons cannot yet be found, although there are many contemporary reports that make the suggestion.

James Watt, FRS, FRSE

James Watt FRS FRSE (1736-1819) was one of the first generation of steam engine inventors, working on stationary engines. His discovery that engine efficiency could be secured by the use of a condenser is said to have made possible the Industrial Revolution. The standard unit of power measurement the "Watt" is named after him, appropriately enough, as Watt himself invented the earlier power rating system known as "horsepower".

Watt was initiated into Freemasonry in Lodge No 77 of the Scottish Constitution, in Glasgow, in 1763. In 1824 a committee met at Freemasons' Hall, London, to plan a memorial to Watt; the Library & Museum of Freemasonry (London) has a copy of the minute book of this committee, illustrated in miniature along the page-edges with a Watt-era steam train, thought to have been painted by artist William Maw Egley.

Lord Claude Hamilton, PC

Lord Claude Hamilton (1843-1925) had three significant careers. Firstly he was a British Army officer, serving with two regiments; secondly, he had a long career in Parliament; thirdly, he became a Director of the failing Great Eastern Railway (GER), remaining in that capacity for the next 50 years. Having become Chairman of the GER he successfully guided it back to stability, completely reversing its fortunes. He was a hands-on Chairman, travelling regularly across the length and breadth of the network.

A busy man, in his spare time Hamilton was a keen Freemason. Along with fellow Masonic Directors he funded the magnificent Grecian Temple in his company's Great Eastern Hotel.

Richard Trevithick

Richard Trevithick (1771-1833) is perhaps best remembered as the builder of the first working steam railway locomotive in 1804, and also for the circular circus railway track and its engine "Catch Me Who Can?" in 1808.

He was also a Freemason. Today at least one Masonic Lodge bears his name (Trevithick Lodge No 9339 at Redruth in Cornwall).

Bramston Beach, PC, MP

William Wither Bramston Beach (1826-1901) was a long-serving English Member of Parliament (MP) and a Privy Councillor (PC). He was a Director of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR), becoming Deputy Chairman. When a Masonic Lodge was formed for the staff of the railway it was named Beach Lodge after the Deputy Chairman, who also served as the first Worshipful Master. Wyndham Portal, Company Chairman, was also a Freemason, but left the new lodge project to his Deputy. Beach always travelled by train, and disliked road transport - ironically he was killed on the road, when a hansom cab ejected him in the street.

Beach was initiated in the Apollo University Lodge No 357, Oxford. He belonged to a huge number of other Lodges. He was the first Provincial Grand Master of the united Province of Hampshire and Isle of Wight. He also served as Grand Superintendent for the Royal Arch in Hampshire, later becoming Third Grand Principal of the English Supreme Grand Chapter. He also held very high rank in various other Masonic Orders.

Sir Daniel Gooch, Bt, MP

Sir Daniel Gooch, Baronet (1816-1889) was created a Baronet after more than 20 years service as a Member of Parliament. He came from a family of railway engineers, and like many of the engineers of his era he was also greatly involved in other projects, most notably transatlantic cable laying. Gooch studied under Robert Stephenson (designer of "Rocket") and Richard Trevithick, and became a protégé of Brunel, who personally recruited Gooch as Locomotive Superintendent of the (broad gauge) GWR in 1837. Despite moving on to other interests, Gooch retuned to the GWR in 1865 as Company Chairman. He was a highly competent engineer, upon whom even Brunel often relied. His designs included "Great Western", the prototype GWR "Iron Duke" class engine.

Gooch was initiated as a Freemason on 14 February 1850 in St George's Lodge. He became Deputy Provincial Grand Master for Wiltshire, and later Provincial Grand Master for both Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

G. J. Churchward, CBE

George Jackson Churchward CBE (1857-1933) was a leading locomotive designer and engineer, associated with the Great Western Railway (GWR) of which he was the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) from 1902 to 1922. He came up through the GWR ranks, succeeding renowned Locomotive Superintendent William Dean (whose Deputy he had been). His locomotive designs include the "City" class (City of Truro - pictured - being the first steam engine to achieve 100mph, although without official timekeeping equipment to allow a valid record), the "Saint" class, and the one-off locomotive "The Great Bear" which was Britain's very first Pacific-type (4-6-2) engine. Uniquely amongst the prominent steam locomotive pioneers, Churchward was killed in a railway accident; whilst inspecting track, despite deafness and blindness caused by old age, he was struck and killed by an express train near Swindon.

Ian Allan, OBE

Ian Allan OBE (1922-2015) had a particular place within the rail industry as the Father of Trainspotting. Allan was a professional railwayman, although a school accident at age 15 led to the amputation of one of his legs, ending his hopes of an active career with the Southern Railway (SR); nonetheless he proceeded into the SR, and joined the public relations department. Whilst working for the Southern he published his first book of engine numbers (during World War Two) and his ABC guides for trainspotters were soon best sellers. He also loved miniature railways, and owned the Great Cockcrow Railway in Surrey (the most extensive and complex miniature rail network in 7.25" gauge), where he was often to be found driving his Atlantic locomotive "Eureka". For a time he also owned the Hastings Miniature Railway. For his services to publishing he was awarded an OBE, and for his service to the rail industry Allan had a class 91 locomotive named "Ian Allan" in his honour. His publishing company published both railway books and Masonic books, although the Masonic publishing was eventually separated into a subsidiary company, Lewis Masonic. His trading empire also sold travel, holidays, railway models, magazines, and Masonic regalia.

Ian Allan was initiated in 1955 in Ashford Manor Lodge No 5045, Middlesex, and later joined several other lodges. He received a number of Masonic honours, culminating in appointment as a Past Junior Grand Deacon in the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE).

Richard Seddon, PC

Richard John Seddon (1845-1906) remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of New Zealand, and arguably the most well-loved (so judged by a Victoria University academic on Radio New Zealand in 2016). He might have served even longer than 13 years as Prime Minister, but he died in office of a heart attack in 1906. He was a committed parliamentarian, who became a Privy Counsellor, and twice turned down offers of Knighthoods. His presence on this page may surprise many, but Seddon had three distinct stages of life: his birth and upbringing were in Lancashire, England, surrounded by railways; he emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, where he worked as a railway engineer in the Melbourne railway works; his political career in New Zealand was the third stage of his life.

Seddon was initiated as an English Freemason in New Zealand in 1868 (Pacific Lodge No 1229), and from 1898 served two years as Grand Master of New Zealand, at the same time as he was in office as Prime Minister.