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Gillingham Lodge of Benevolence No. 184

Our history

More than 235 years in Medway

Our Lodge has met somewhere in Medway every year since 1787, through wars, rebuilding and enormous change in the towns around us.

  1. 1787

    Warranted in Chatham

    Our Lodge was warranted on 13 December 1787 by the “Antients” Grand Lodge, one of the two rival Grand Lodges of the day. The first meetings were held at the Crown & Thistle Tavern in Chatham.

  2. 1813

    An Atholl Lodge under one Grand Lodge

    The Antients and the Moderns united to form the United Grand Lodge of England. Our Lodge is one of the “Atholl” lodges — those warranted by the Antients that are still working today.

  3. 1824

    Three Lodges become one

    The Lodge united with two other nearby Antients lodges, bringing their members and traditions together with our own.

  4. 19th–20th century

    The Dockyard years

    Many of our members worked at, or were stationed at, Chatham Naval Dockyard. Generation after generation of shipwrights, artificers and officers passed through the Lodge, giving it strong and lasting naval links.

  5. 1920

    A memorial tablet at Park Place

    In February 1920 the Lodge unveiled a memorial tablet in its lodge room at Park Place, New Brompton, to the members it had lost in the First World War — most of them serving in the Royal Navy.

  6. 1987

    Bicentenary

    The Lodge marked two hundred years with a written history compiled by W.Bro. John Herbert Kentsbeer, Past Master, whose research remains the foundation of what we know about our early years.

  7. Today

    At the Franklin Rooms, Gillingham

    We meet at the Franklin Rooms in Gillingham — more than 235 years of continuous Freemasonry in Medway, and still welcoming new members.

Sailors and dockyard workers on a quayside at Chatham Naval Dockyard in the early twentieth century, with warships alongside
Chatham Naval Dockyard, where many of our members worked or served.

We Remember

Several members of the Lodge lost their lives in the First World War, most of them serving in the Royal Navy. Their names were recorded on the memorial tablet unveiled in our lodge room at Park Place, New Brompton, in February 1920, and they are remembered still.

Brother John Corner

Brother John Corner was a Chief Engine Room Artificer. He was lost when the destroyer HMS Ghurka struck a mine off Dungeness on 8 February 1917. His body was later recovered near Worthing, where local Freemasons identified him from the Masonic identification card he carried. They wrote to the Lodge to say that he had been cared for as a brother — a small act of kindness, from strangers, that has never been forgotten here.

Historic photographs and documents

[Placeholder area for historic photographs, warrants, summonses and pages from the 1987 history. Scanned items can be added here with a short caption and date for each.]