The Rt Hon Sir Frederick Halsey

27 September, 2016

1873 – 1924

Thomas Frederick Halsey was born at Temple Dinsley on 9th December 1839, the son of Thomas Plumer Halsey of Gaddesden, (who was for a year Grand Director of Ceremonies). He was initiated whilst at Christ Church, Oxford, into Apollo University Lodge No. 357 in January 1861. As a fifteen year old pupil at Eton he had been orphaned when his father, mother, and only brother were drowned in the Mediterranean. Yet at Oxford, he gained a Blue in the Boat Race. His father had joined Watford Lodge in 1835 but had resigned from Freemasonry along with Lord Salisbury in 1844.

In spite of his membership of other Lodges, he concentrated on Watford Lodge which he joined in 1863, the same year as the Lodge Number was changed to 404. Four years later in 1867 he was appointed Provincial Junior Grand Deacon and the following year Provincial Senior Grand Warden. The same year he went into the Chair of Watford Lodge for the first time.

In July 1873, there being then no Provincial Grand Master, Bro Halsey laid the Foundation Stone of the Watford Public Library and of the New Freemason’s Hall in Watford which he then consecrated the following year.

On 25th November 1873 he was appointed Provincial Grand Master and installed on 22nd April 1874 to a position which he held for a longer time than any other individual, namely fifty years to 1924. He became Provincial Grand Superintendent in the Royal Arch on 28th October 1875 and was the first Provincial Grand Master of the Mark Degree from 24th June 1856. Bro Halsey was also one of the Members of Parliament for the county from 1874 until 1906.

The year 1874 marks the commencement of a golden period of Hertfordshire Freemasonry. Brother Halsey ruled the Province wisely and well and Brother Keyser bounteously provided funds for the Masonic Institutions, so that Hertfordshire became a Province renowned for the chief Masonic virtues – Benevolence and Charity. Bro Keyser was to succeed him in Craft, Chapter and Mark in 1924.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Bro Halsey so endeared himself to the hearts of his Brethren that the new Grand Master, the Duke of Connaught, appointed him his Deputy in 1903, a position which Bro Halsey resigned only shortly before his death in 1927.

On 25th July 1902, RW Bro Halsey was presented by the Province with an illuminated address, also with two silver salvers of the time of George II, 1739 and 1741, and a chased loving cup of 1761, the second year of George III. In 1970, the two salvers were returned by RW Bro Guy Halsey for use in the Province – one to the Craft, the other to Mark. In 1974 the loving cup was presented to Halsey Lodge No. 1479 to mark its Centenary.

When in 1904 RW Bro Halsey completed thirty years as Provincial Grand Master, the White Ivory Maul was presented to him which has been used by successive Provincial Grand Masters. It was presented on behalf of all the Lodges of the Province by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master W. Bro F. Sumner Knyvett PGD. One part of the address was a good guide to the health of the Province:-

“…. .the period of your long rule has been marked by unruffled serenity and substantial progress; nothing has happened to mar the peace and harmony of the Lodges over which you preside; no Lodge which you have consecrated has fallen upon the evil days of adversity, or failed to make for itself a position in the Craft ……….while the claims of Masonic charity are generally well responded to ………”

In 1877 the diocese of St. Albans was created, with a Bishop, and St. Albans became a City. The Abbey became a Cathedral. Under the autocratic enthusiasm of Lord Grimfhorpe an immense programme of repair and alteration to the Abbey was put in hand. In 1883 Provincial Grand Lodge was held at St. Albans and, after being opened, it was called off, and the Brethren walked in procession to the Cathedral, where the Provincial Grand Master presented a new pulpit on behalf of the Province, with these words:-

Our earnest prayer is, that from this pulpit may, for many generations, be poured forth words which will solace the fearful, cheer the despondent, and lead to the repentance, hope, and salvation of the sinner, and that, as water came forth from the rock in the desert at the bidding of Moses, so from this spot may be poured forth the stream of the Word of Life, bringing peace and salvation to mankind from generation to generation, till time shall be no more “.

In 1879, under the provisions of the Endowed Schools Act of 1868, St. Albans School was reformed. A number of Brethren were Mayors of St. Albans, and were ex-officio Governors of the school, which had moved from the Lady Chapel to the Great Gate in 1871. Then the Education Act of 1902 dealt with the development of secondary education. Plans were eventually drawn up to enlarge the school, and on the 22nd April 1907 the Provincial Grand Lodge met at the school and, after being called off, the Foundation Stone was laid by the Provincial Grand Master, with full Masonic ritual, for a new Assembly Hall and classrooms. After mentioning that he attended in a threefold capacity, as Chairman of the County Council (which had taken over local education in 1902), as Provincial Grand Master, and as Deputy Grand Master of the Freemasons of England, he said:-

I think there is something not    inappropriate    in    my attending in these capacities, because   one  of  the  points which   is   inculcated   most strongly with our Members and Brethren is the pursuit of science and of study, which will enable them day by day to render themselves more useful to their fellow creatures”.

After mentioning the Square, Level and Plumb Rule with which he had tried the stone, he added this:-

May the building which will rise on top of this stone be fraught with lasting advantage and benefit to future generations of the County, and that, in this and similar institutions, the County of Hertfordshire may continue to hold its own, and to turn out those well qualified to do their duty as Englishmen”.

In 1928 the then Provincial Grand Master, the RW Bro C.E. Keyser was to lay the keystone of the arch leading to four additional classrooms.

Special mention should be made of the notable service to Masonry rendered during the First World War by Bro Halsey. As Deputy Grand Master at the age of seventy-five, in 1914, he took up at the request of the Grand Master, and in the absence of the Pro Grand Master, the exceptionally heavy and responsible work of acting head of Grand Lodge. The efficient way in which he performed the duties which thus devolved upon him is well known, and his portrait on the walls of Grand Lodge, placed there during his lifetime, is a memorial to his great services to the Craft.

He was installed for the second time as WM of Watford Lodge in June 1918, fifty years after his first Mastership. He occupied the Chair as WM at five out of seven meetings during that year and performed several degree Ceremonies. Bros Keyser and Cockrem had said “of course Bro Halsey (with his heavy duties as Deputy Grand Master) will not do any of the work” but at the first meeting after his installation he initiated Bro Stanley Rogers, and raised Bro Dennis Herbert (afterwards Rt Hon Dennis Henry, 1st Baron Hemingford). He excused himself for not using the strict Emulation working, as he had learnt the Oxford working when very young and did not want to learn another at his age.

It is recorded that on 10th October 1920, Bro Halsey unveiled the village war memorial in Kings Langley.

At the end of 1923 Bro Halsey resigned the office of Provincial Grand Master on completion of fifty years in that office during which time he had officiated at the consecration of thirty-one Lodges, the first being Halsey Lodge No. 1479, only seven days after his installation as Provincial Grand Master. When Sir Frederick retired as Provincial Grand Master, the Halsey Lodge presented to him the beautiful censer which is used at Consecrations, and on the 29th April 1924 the Province presented the set of gilt Consecrating Vessels, including the splendid cornucopia, which were immediately returned for use by the Province in perpetuity.

In 1926 he resigned, to the universal regret of the Craft, the Office of Deputy Grand Master, because in his own words, he desired to do so before he became unable to perform the duties of the office efficiently. His death in February 1927, aged eighty-seven years, was felt as a personal loss by every member of Watford Lodge and indeed widely throughout the Masonic World. A memorial service at St. Albans Abbey was of course attended by a great number of Masons.

It is largely due to the foresight of Bro Thomas W. Chant as well as his own generosity that the Halsey Masonic Hall was erected on a site then described as “near the cross roads in the centre of the best part of Watford”, as a memorial to Bro Halsey and was completed and in use in the Autumn of 1926 about a year before he died. On 20th July 1926 RW Bro H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, PGW, paid an informal visit to this new Hall.

It would not be proper to close this Chapter without a brief reference to three other eminent Members of the distinguished Halsey family. Two sons of Bro Halsey came into Hertfordshire Masonry through the Watford Lodge No. 404. The Canon – then the Rev Frederick Halsey – joined in 1907, whilst Vicar of All Saints Church, Kings Langley and was Provincial Grand Master from 1949 to 1952 in the footsteps of his Brother the Admiral – Bro Sir Lionel Halsey – who had joined Watford Lodge in 1930 and was Provincial Grand Master from 1931 to 1949. Finally, Bro Halsey’s grandson (son of the Canon) Bro Guy Marsden Halsey, having been initiated into Watford Lodge by his father in 1938, became Provincial Grand Master from 1974 to 1985.

The inscription over the photograph of Bro Halsey appearing in “The Freemason” dated 19th February 1927 forms an apt epitaph:

“Though old, he still retain’d

 His manly sense and energy of mind.

 Virtuous and wise he was, but not severe:

 He still remember’d that he once was young:

 His easy presence check’d no decent joy”

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