Alpha-Waikato Lodge, No 449, I.C

On 15 December 1865, the Alpha Waikato Lodge No.449, I.C., Cambridge was opened in a hotel later known as the Masonic Hotel, by dispensation by the Provincial Grand Master of New Zealand, I.C.
A booklet ‘The Lodge Alpha No 81 1883 – 1983’ relates the story that, “It seems highly probable that the early meetings of the Lodge were held in a Commissariat Store in Cambridge West, now Leamington. A rum cask was the first altar, and a certain Sergeant Carnachan paraded up and down in front of the door which faced the parade ground.”
A warrant was issued by the Grand Lodge of Ireland on 18 May 1866 as No. 449, but the Lodge had all but closed by 1868. The Lodge Alpha booklet goes on to say, “However some of the Alpha brethren must have remained in Cambridge, and apparently made themselves responsible for taking care of the Charter which reached them in 1870, and was not surrendered until 1877.”

This index of the members of the Alpha-Waikato Lodge, No 449, I.C. and the year they joined, is taken from ‘The Extinct Lodges of New Zealand’ by R W Bro Colonel G Barclay.

ARKCOLL Harvey A – 1866
BEERE Gerald B – 1866
CLEMENTS Arch – 1866
COLLINS James – 1865
DAVIES Jas – 1865
DETTERSCH James – 1866
DIVER Frank – 1866
FARR Alfred Elias – 1867
FEATHERSTON Wm L Haugh – 1866
FULLERTON Mathew – 1866
GEGAN Luke – 1866
GERARD Jules W – 1866
GREGSON Archer K – 1866
GRIFFIN Chas – 1866
HAMLIN Josiah P – 1866
HART Andrew – 1865
HICKEY Henry – 1865
INNES Francis – 1865
JOHNSTON Andrew S – 1866
KIRKWOOD John – 1866
KIRKWOOD Robert – 1867
LOVEDAY Lambert W – 1866
McCOLL Chas E D – 1866
McLENNAN James – 1866
MAINWARING Robert C – 1866
MOFFATT John – 1865
MULLER Eugene H – 1866
NEWALL Stewart – 1866
NOONAN Edmund – 1866
RICKARDS Prideaux Owen – 1865
ROBINSON Edward B – 1866
SAM Seth – 1865
SCHOLFIELD Samuel C – 1866
SIMPSON William – 1865
SKEET Henry L – 1866
SPILLER Harvey – 1866
SWINDELLS Wm – 1866
WILLIAMSON Jas Y – 1866