11/11/2024
I no longer have any affiliations with this building. However, I was shocked to hear that over a dozen veterans, guys that for over a decade have always spent Remembrance Day in the bar of chester-Le-Street Masonic. Have been perfect gentlemen (& put a considerable amount of spends over the bar) were today told that they were not welcome in this bar, & that the police had been called and they were to leave immediately.
Not understanding why such a dramatic act had been taken against these veterans, on Remembrance Day of all days, I enquired further. Obviously, not knowing the full truth, (happy to be corrected, if a genuine reason for this alienation of incredibly nice folk can be given) but, I think getting a grasp of the genuine whys and wherefores; it appears that one member of the lodge has a personal dislike of one of the guys who were in the company of the veterans. Not a veteran himself, although a distinguished & upstanding member of our community. In support of his brother another member approached the guests and told them all that they were not welcome and they must leave immediately .claiming that he was the licensee. This is what the veterans themselves told me directly (not heresay or rumour). I am astounded that such a personal dislike should attract such official Masonic support.I don’t think the two brothers have any official standing. I have been away for quite awhile so I may be wrong in the latter. In any event, is this how chester-le-street Masonry wishes to portray itself?
