Bro. Laurie Pyle, PPJGW, was presented by W. Bro. John Norris, Assistant Provincial Grand Master, with a Certificate of 60 Years of Service to the Craft at the Installation Meeting of Stanstead Abbotts Lodge, No. 9085, in October 2017.
He was Initiated into Woodhall Park Lodge, No. 7126, on 30th March 1957 and became its Worshipful Master in 1967. As Master, he had the privilege of attending the Installation of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent as Most Worshipful Grand Master and remembers being shown to his seat on that momentous occasion by Sir Donald Wolfit, the renowned Wartime Shakespearian actor and producer, who was a Grand Steward and Master of the Green Room Lodge, No. 2957. His first Provincial Appointment came in 1974, when he was made Provincial Assistant Director of Ceremonies. He escorted the then Provincial Grand Master, Right Worshipful Colonel Alexander Woods, and his successor Right Worshipful Guy Marsden Halsey. In the Royal Arch, he received the Grand Superintendent’s Certificate of Service in 1998.
In his long Masonic career, W. Bro. Laurie was both Installed Organist and Guest Organist in countless lodges and chapters. During the War years, he was part of the Reserved Occupations as an engineer, spending time in Scotland engaged in the manufacture of aircraft parts and coal-cutting machinery. After the War, he spent some years with Vincent Motorcycles, who at the time advertised the “World’s fastest motorbikes” and then went on to become a technical representative for a Sheffield steel company.
At the grand age of 96, Laurie was delighted to reflect on his many recollections of his life, over the magnificent span of six decades, in and out of Freemasonry.
