Very Wor Bro Ambrose Bloxham Armstrong.
It is with deep sadness that we record the Passing of Very Wor Bro Ambrose Armstrong, a prominent ritualist from Cairncastle,in the South East corner of County Antrim. Since his earliest membership in the Craft, he always had a keen interest in our ritual, and this took him into the Larne Class of Instruction. Here he progressed, eventually becoming Class Leader of the Larne Class, before his appointment as an Elected Member of The Grand Lodge of Instruction, a uniquely Irish Institution which safeguards the purity of our Ritual.
For many years Ambrose was one of the friendly faces that we met when visiting Cairncastle 788 I.C. He was very proud of his membership in this Lodge and in the photograph above, he is exhibiting an early Cairncastle Lodge photograph, when his late father, a Lighthouse Keeper, stationed for many years on the Island of Rathlin, occupied the Chair in Cairncastle Lodge. Ambrose always had a great interest in the history and symbolism of Freemasonry, and with the help of the late Very Wor Bro David McCutcheon organised a very successful visit to Cairncastle 788 by the Brethren of The Irish Lodge of Research. Whilst there, we visited St Patricks Church of Ireland Church, where Ambrose related the explanation on how there comes to be a Spanish Chestnut growing in the graveyard, traditionally sprouting from a chestnut in the pocket of one of the Spanish sailors, drowned off the coast of Ballygally and buried in the Cairncastle graveyard, after their galleon sunk at the time of The Spanish Armada.
Tomorrow, on the 24th November at 12.00 Noon, the funeral of our Very Wor Bro Ambrose Armstrong will take place in this very same church, before being buried in the family plot in this same graveyard. Our deepest sympathy and prayers go out to the family circle, son Billy and daughters Sally and Heather, and his Grandchildren Peter, Sarah and Conor. Our thoughts are with them all at this difficult time.