Unique occasion for Univesities Scheme
Last night at Freemasons’ Hall was the unique consecration of David Kenneth Williamson Lodge No. 9938.
The new lodge is an Installed Masters’ lodge for the Universities Scheme, of which David Williamson, Past Assistant Grand Master, was the first President.
The consecration was done by Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes, with David subsequently installed as the Primus Master by the Deputy Grand Master, with the Assistant Grand Master acting as IPM – a very rare thing to get three Rulers at an event other than Grand Lodge!
David Williamson tweeted:
Deeply honoured to be installed as first WM of DKW Lodge 9938. Fantastic Ceremony & great Lunch. Thanks to all who made this possible.
— David Williamson (@UGLE_DKW) December 5, 2016
David Kenneth Williamson
David Kenneth Williamson was born in Bombay, India in October 1943. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Lichfield, Queen Mary College, University of London, and King’s College, Cambridge.
Having trained to be a pilot, after winning an RAF flying scholarship aged seventeen, and following a brief spell as a schoolmaster, David joined the British Overseas Airways Corporation (now British Airways) in 1968. He became Assistant Flight Training Manager on the Boeing 737, before undertaking the same role on the Boeing 747-400 fleet until he retired in 1998.
He was initiated into Freemasonry in the Andover Combined Services Lodge, No. 8300, aged 29 on the 17th April 1972, and was Master of that Lodge in 1982. Despite being initiated in the Province of Hampshire and Isle of Wight, it was in Middlesex that David’s Masonic career took hold. He was appointed a Provincial Deputy Grand Director of Ceremonies in 1992, Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies from 1995 to 1997, and Deputy Provincial Grand Master from 2000 to 2001.
Within Grand Lodge, he was appointed an Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies in 1995, and a Deputy Grand Director of Ceremonies from 1998 until his appointment as Assistant Grand Master in March 2001, a role he held for thirteen years. He served as a Grand Steward on the 2014-2 15 Board. He founded the Universities Scheme in 2005 andwas its President until 2015.
Outside the Craft, he was Third Grand Principal in Supreme Grand Chapter from 2010 to 2016, Grand Senior Warden in the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons in 2002, and in 2014 became a member of the Supreme Council 33° of the Ancient and Accepted Rite for England and Wales and its Districts and Chapters Overseas (as Grand Chancellor).
The Universities Scheme
The Universities Scheme was founded in 2005 to establish or enhance arrangements and opportunities for undergraduates and other University members to join and enjoy Freemasonry. Building on the centuries old traditions of University Masonry at Oxford and Cambridge, the Scheme works with Provinces, Districts, and the Metropolitan Grand Lodge to identify Lodges, and now Royal Arch Chapters, willing to reach out and welcome young men from their local universities to join the Craft and Royal Arch.
The Scheme currently includes 72 Lodges and 3 Chapters, across the English Constitution. The ‘DKW’ Lodge will be its 73rd and will serve as the Scheme’s Installed Masters’ Lodge.