Background:
Pioneer Lodge is the Scout Lodge of Derbyshire. It was founded at the behest of R.W.Bro. Charles Connal Wilson, Provincial Grand Master of Derbyshire and County Commissioner of the Scout County of West Yorkshire. He personally invited senior Masons with a Scouting background to become founders. The twenty founders came from four different Masonic provinces.
The name of the Lodge was suggested by W.Bro. Dennis Cooper. In "Scouting for Boys", part 3, published on 12th February 1908 (Camp Fire Yarn No. 11), Baden-Powell wrote that, "Pioneers are men who go ahead to open the way …… for those coming after them.
R.W.Bro. Wilson directed that no one who had already been installed into the chair of another Lodge could be installed into the chair of Pioneer. We have complied with his wish to this day.
W.Bro. Phil Speed bought twenty copies of Taylor’s Ritual from Letchworth’s in London, having first learned that this ritual sold the fewest copies. From the start all twenty founders had to learn a new ritual, putting them all on the same level. Pioneer Lodge is today the most northern follower of this ritual and recently joined the Association for Taylor’s Working.
W.Bro. Clive Bemrose, a former County Commissioner of the Scout County of Derbyshire and a Past Master of Tyrian Lodge No. 253, the oldest Lodge in the Province, arranged that Tyrian Lodge would sponsor Pioneer Lodge.
Pioneer Lodge was consecrated during the Year of the Scout on 18th December 1982, at Derby Masonic Hall, by R.W.Bro. C.C. Wilson. The Master of our sponsoring Lodge that year was W.Bro. J.G.R. Rudd, who went on to become R.W. Provincial Grand Master of Derbyshire. The then W.Bro. Rudd delivered the third degree working tools at our consecration.
The first initiate into Pioneer Lodge was Kim Gale, County Commissioner for the Scout County of Derbyshire. W.Bro. Kim served as the Lodge’s Worshipful Master in 1995-96.
The Lodge badge is based upon the post-1959 Scout Pioneer Proficiency Badge, together with the Scout World Membership Badge and the Masonic square and compasses. The Pioneer badge shows a clove hitch on a spar. Square lashings start with a clove hitch on the upright spar, to which the horizontal is lashed at right angles. When tightened with equal strain on both ends, the hitch holds fast. The Scout World Membership Badge is the arrowhead encircled by a rope tied with a reef knot. The arrowhead points the right way to go ahead. The rope tied with a reef knot shows Scouting’s global nature tied with unbreakable bonds. The Masonic square and compasses are linked through the clove hitch, taking the strain and remaining firm. The log’s striations represent the Lodge’s twenty founders. The whole demonstrates Freemasonry and Scouting universal.
The Lodge banner was designed by W.Bro. Dennis Cooper and was dedicated by the PGM in June 1985. Pioneer Lodge now presents a copy of the Scout Pioneer badge to its special guests.
The Lodge motto is taken from I Thessalonians, 5, verse 21, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. The link with the clove hitch on the badge is clear.
Originally Pioneer Lodge held each meeting at a different Masonic Hall around the Province. However, in the last few years we have settled down and now meet regularly at The Masonic Rooms, Belper. Since 1991 we have held our annual uniform meeting in June at The Bemrose Training Centre, Drum Hill Scout Camp Site. It is also traditional that our July meeting be a Ladies Afternoon. After visiting a local attraction while we hold a Lodge meeting, our Ladies and non-Masonic guests join us for a meal together.
From its early days Pioneer Lodge has been a member of the Kindred Lodges Association (KLA). The purpose of the KLA is to foster fraternal relations between Lodges associated with Youth Work. Pioneer Lodge has three times hosted one of the KLA’s twice yearly Festivals, at which Freemasons meet together wearing the uniform of their Youth organisation.
