Freemasons appoint new lodge master

Former REME man gets top post

NEWBURY Freemasons have installed a new head of their Loyal Berkshire Lodge of Hope for the coming year.

He is Neil Wilkinson, a Beenham resident who joined the Lodge in 2008.

Mr Wilkinson is a former staff sergeant instructor in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), serving terms in Germany, Ireland and in the First Gulf War.

Sadly, a serious motorcycling accident in 1995 ended his military career, leaving him confined to a wheelchair.

A business colleague of Mr Wilkinson’s suggested he take up Freemasonry, one of the world’s oldest fraternal and charitable organisations.

By a strange quirk two lodge members, then in the police force, had attended Mr Wilkinson’s accident and remembered they had little hope for his survival at the time.

Mr Wilkinson’s name is now added to the list of distinguished members, which has included, over its 165-year history, local members of parliament and civic leaders.