New Welcome Lodge
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The New Welcome Lodge, No. 5139, was a British Masonic Lodge that was aimed at recruiting Labour Party Members of Parliament.
It was consecrated in 1929, shortly before the formation in 1929 of the second Labour Government. It was created at the suggestion of the then Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VIII, who was concerned by the antagonism between Freemasonry and the British left towards Freemasonry. The New Welcome Lodge was intended to form a link between Freemasonry and the new governing party, and was open to Labour MPs and for employees of trade unions and the Labour party; its members included Labour's deputy leader Arthur Greenwood.[1]
When the Parliamentary Labour Party was reduced in strength after its split at the 1929 general election over Ramsay MacDonald's formation of the National Government, numbers were reduced, and in 1934 membership was opened to all men working in the Palace of Westminster.
Herbert Dunnico was Master of the New Welcome Lodge in 1931.
[edit] References
- ^ Freemasonry and the Labour Party in London: Some Approaches, Andrew Prescott, 2002
