Some of the Brethren of the Lodge of St Michael have kindly agreed to provide thumbnail portraits.
Peter Stokes
Born 21st August 1955 in Paddington, West London, I was educated in Rugby, then in Newcastle New South Wales, Australia and Geelong Victoria. Returning to the UK from Australia I joined the Royal Navy on 22nd May 1973 and attained the rating of Petty Officer Electrician
I left the RN in 1984 and moved to Crawley, West Sussex. I worked as a Sales Engineer in the South London area, eventually moving areas to central London. During this period (1990- 2001) I was invited by several friends to accompany them on Ladies weekends or dinners. At that time my wife was not supportive, so I put Masonry on the back burner.
In 2001 my wife passed, and I moved on to Northern Cyprus where I played background music in pubs and restaurants, and I learnt to scuba dive. In 2004 I passed my PADI Instructors exam and I worked as a diving Instructor for the next five years.
In 2010 I returned to the UK and after an initial settling-in period re started life as a Sales Engineer. I was invited to Join the Lodge of Reunion 5618 which meets in the Royal National Hotel, Russell Square in London. I was initiated on 16th February 2013, Passed 21st September 2013 and Raised 15th February 2014.
I moved to Hull in October 2014, and shortly after joined The Lodge of St Michael 7833 and subsequently the Chapter of St Michael 7833.
[Peter was installed as Worshipful Master of the Lodge of St Michael 7833 on the 26th May 2022]
Shaun Rennison
I was born in 1950 on Hessle Road in Hull and spent my early years in Northern Ireland where my father was RSM with the North Irish Horse stationed in both Belfast and Londonderry.
My schooling was in Hull along with work experience on the fish docks from the age of 12, followed by National Sea Training School where I took a catering course, joining my first ship in August 1966. I met my future wife in 1967, and joined Berni Inns in 1970 as Assistant Manager at the White House Hotel in Hull, progressing to relief manager at various inns and hotels from Darlington to Chingford.
When our 2 boys were born in '71 and '74 I shunned the anti-social hours of the licensed trade for supermarkets and became a trainee manager with Grandways. I attended college and in 1985 gained a business studies post- grad qualification. I then became a fresh foods specialist and eventually Operations Director for the company with responsibility for 72 stores and 3,500 personnel.
Leaving the company after twenty years, my wife Carol and I set up our own business with a lease at The Bear Inn, South Cave and a year later our own Fresh Food business supplying prepared Fresh Produce to caterers in the Hull & East Riding. The Pub business went well, expanding to five outlets including The Triton Inn at Brantingham which we sold in the mid-2000’s.
In 2006 I was elected national President of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations, a post I held for two years. A member since 1992 of my local LVA I am still in touch with the trade and am a Volunteer Ambassador for the Licensed Trade Charity based in Ascot.
Carol was sadly diagnosed with illness in 2014 at which time I stepped back from our business operations; the pubs were all sold by then and our eldest son continued to run our food business, which sadly entered administration, after 28 years in May 2022 as a direct result of covid measures. We relocated from Hull to Elloughton in 2018 to a bungalow for practical reasons and to be near family.
Freemasonry for me began with my initiation into Brough Lodge 5464 in 1992. Then followed a brief hiatus before I joined the Lodge of St Michael in 2010, taking the Chair as WM in 2019 where I remained until after the covid pandemic.I enjoy my Freemasonry and am a member of the Chapter of St Michael.
[Shaun was appointed and invested as Chief Steward at the Installation - a post to which he is already appying his considerable skills.]
Isaac Jackie Chapman
I was born on Saturday 1st of July 1950 in Wimbledon and spent the early part of my life in London.
My first school was at the Froebel Institution in Ibstock Place, Roehampton and I attended till I was ten. I then requested my parents to send me to a Boarding School as I thought that it would be a great adventure.
I ended up at Whittingham College situated in Handcross just past Crawley on the way to Brighton. I recall when my father pulled me out of there: it was at the end of a Summer Term when he came to pick me up and wanted to know why I had not sent any letters home for six weeks. I replied that I had been in quarantine and not allowed access to the outside world, whereupon he told me to pack ALL my belongings into the car whilst he informed the school that I would not be returning. I was fourteen at the time.
Burbank College, Aylsham, North Norfolk was my next school. This was my residence until I left formal education in the UK in 1968.
The Rotarian headmaster somehow persuaded my parents that if I was to stay for an extra year (67/68) he would get me onto an Exchange Student Scheme to spend a year in the USA. I jumped at the chance so in September 1968, after receiving a frantic phone call stating that the School had already started I was dispatched with all haste to London Airport to board a Boeing 707 bound for Chicago. It was on this flight I had 
my first Martini (shaken not stirred as was the vogue at that time.)
After landing I was met by a young man who was to become my American brother. He drove us for a couple of hours to his house in Mt Vernon, Iowa where I was to stay for the year and attend the local High School as a Senior (yes I did Graduate.) Whilst there I watched the Moon Landings and also met up with all the other exchange students (approximately 300 from all round the world.) We went on a Greyhound Bus tour for three weeks circling the States and ending up in New York where I was put up by a cousin of my Uncle. I returned to the UK on the SS France which I believe at that time held the Blue Riband Award for the fastest Atlantic crossing.
So much for childhood; now to work.
I started full-time employment in the Family Business, which was called Headquarters and General Supplies (H&G) and was at the time the leading mail-order company in the UK but that only lasted a short time. Although I had worked there during all of my school holidays I was asked by the Management (not family) to do what I felt was spying on the staff. Some of them, moreover, were coming to me hoping for favours or advancement through my family connections. This was untenable so I applied to Selfridges Ltd in Oxford St and spent the next ten years there, attaining the rank of Assistant Manager in both the China and Furniture Departments.
It was in 1972 that my father approached me and asked if I would like to join his Lodge. I knew nothing about Freemasonry at the time, but said yes on the assumption that if it was good enough for my father it was good enough for me, and I was subsequently Initiated into the Lodge of Aspiration 6086 on the 27th October 1975 and Raised on the 9th January 1978.
I
was not a regular attender at the Aspiration Lodge of Instruction as they met every Sunday at the Lodge in Willesden and I preferred to play football and rugby for the Selfridge Works Teams, reasoning that Masonry is for later in Life, and active sport was for youngsters like me! The Lodge then lost its Willesden hotel venue and had to move to Grand Lodge in Great Queen Street. Both my father and I found that it was difficult to attend the meetings although they were only four times a year.
In 1978 I left Selfridges and started work at the Reject China Shop in Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, and spent five happy years there until they went into liquidation. It was then that I became a Driving Instructor. I met a fellow instructor who was a member of the Hounslow Lodge 5415 in the Province of Middlesex and I was invited to join.
I married Denise in November 1984 and we have three grown-up children, Hannah, Christopher and Laura.
In 1991 I moved to Hull but was unable to find any Lodges so asked the Secretary of my then Lodge if he could do anything for me. Within two weeks I had received eight invitations to various Lodges in the Hull area. I visited them all but found that I could only follow the proceedings in only one of them; that was, of course the Lodge of St Michael 7833 which practices Emulation working. I applied to become a joining member and I’m pleased to say I was accepted.
I had to wait about seven years, but I was proudly Installed as Worshipful Master in May 2001.
I still enjoy building and flying model airplanes as a hobby and find that (especially after heart surgery) Freemasonry takes precedence over playing football and rugby - though I still enjoy sport on TV. I’m looking forward to the Covid situation improving as Denise and I love cruising to the Caribbean.
And in the meantime, there’s the Lodge of Instruction . . .
[W Bro Jack Chapman, PPGReg, is the Preceptor for the Lodge of St Michael 7833.]
Terry James Lynn
Ever since I mentioned I was brought up in Peckham, London, one of my friends in Yorkshire calls me Del Boy – especially when he found out my eldest brother had a Robin Reliant van like the one in “Only Fools and Horses”.
I was born in East Dulwich Hospital on 14th November 1945. I’m sure the tags they put on babies’ feet were mixed up – I’m certain my real name is Rothschild, not Lynn, as I’m sure I should have been rich.
Up to being twenty I thought my name was Terence – but discovered that my birth certificate had me down as Terry - my Mum and Dad both used to fill out forms using Terence. We lived in a prefab in Holidale Road, Peckham. The prefabs had been erected after the war to house those who’s houses were bombed, and remained for many years. We were privileged in having a bathroom – though it was only used once a week because it was expensive to heat the water. Families lived close together in those days and my grandparents lived in the same street. They lived upstairs, while my Aunt and Uncle lived downstairs with their three children.
I had three brothers, but I was a rather sickly child when young. I contracted bronchial pneumonia at round four years old and spent eighteen months in St Mary’s convalescent home in Broadstairs, Kent. Even now I recall looking through the window and seeing my brothers rolling on the grass bank outside and Dad going bonkers as they were in their best clothes for visiting.
When I came home I wore the same clothes I’d had on eighteen months before so my leggings were halfway up my legs and the coat sleeves halfway up my arms. Mother used to get upset when I accidently called her “Sister” or “Nurse”.
My Dad was a window cleaner after coming out of the army. He’d push his cart with his ladders and bucket for miles, and if Mum was working, he took us children along. As we grew older we used to help clean windows, which earned us some spending money. I remember cleaning inside Uden & Sons Undertakers parlour one day when the undertaker came him. “I see you’re keeping him company,” he said, and I turned round to see a coffin with a body in it. That freaked me out!
My brothers and I walked to and from school in Peckham. It was about a mile and a half away from the house, but this was standard practice in those days. We sat at double desks with inkwell inserts. In the infants we only used chalk and slate; getting to write with a pen with a nib was terrible and I was often told off for ink spots in my exercise book. Old “Spitty” Webb, the headmaster, once threw it across the room in disgust.
Inevitably, we grew up, and my choir boy days came to an end when my voice broke.
I remember going to see Millwall play – we used to cross a railway line and clamber over a low fence at the back of the grounds to get in free. Sometimes we’d manage to get into the Saturday morning pictures at the Gaumont Cinema in Peckham High Street – one of us would pay then go to the loo and let the rest of us in via the emergency door. Those were the days of Superman with Kirk Alyn, Batman and Robin (Robert Lowery and John Duncan) and Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyde).
I moved school – Peckham Manor, about two and a half miles from the family home which had moved to Lyndhurst Grove. As the school was less than three miles away, we weren’t allowed to go on our bikes. We stayed for school dinners, but they were awful. Occasionally we’d go to the Pie, Mash and Liquor Shop for a traditional London meal. I have fond memories of shrimps and winkles – (we were not keen on jellied eels) – Saturday dinner at home was always Spam, mash and peas.
We didn’t have a telephone until 1967 – there was a red public phone box nearby, but few people used telephones in those days. It was usually 4d for a call – you had to press button A to get through and button B to get your money back.
I started work at fifteen, and eventually wound up at C A W Stanbridge, an old workshop with elderly staff, but the two directors taught me everything about engineering including machine tools, brazing, welding and fitting. I saved hard for my first motorcycle, a Triumph Tiger-Cub, and made frequent visits to Chislehurst Caves Jazz Club in Kent – listening to top artists such as Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk, and to lots of 60s groups playing in the many pubs.
I continued my education at evening classes three times a week and was awarded with my HNC in Engineering and certification in Materials Technology. I joined Burmah Castrol in Marylebone, London, and there met Margaret, who I later married.
Tiring of Design Engineering, I went into engineering sales with James Walker & Co, first as a Tech Representative, and was later promoted to Product Engineer at Woking. It was in 1978 I was sent to the Middlesbrough depot to visit some customers, and the Depot Manager, George Barr, invited me round to his house for a meal. George was the WM of a Lodge in the area, and during the evening, several gentlemen came in to discuss the arrangements for a Ladies Night. He told me a bit about Freemasonry, suggesting that if I was interested, I should speak to a colleague that shared my office in Woking. To my surprise, it was Fred Mullard – a chap with whom I used to go sea fishing.
I was initiated into Bramston Beach Lodge 2101 in Godalming Surrey in March 1979. I was about to go into the JW Chair, when the Company offered me a change of venue. There were opportunities all over the country but eventually Margaret and I settled in Hull, as Industrial Manager and Product and Sales Training Manager. I worked for the company for forty-seven years and retired at sixty-five.
The move impacted on my Freemasonry, however, and I wanted to continue my Masonic development. I didn’t want to relearn ritual – the unique Humber working is all very well, but I had been brought up with Emulation Ritual. Thus I joined the Lodge of St Michael 7833 in 1984, and became WM in 1996. Various Provincial honours have culminated in the rank of Past Provincial Junior Grand Warden.
I’d joined Brough Royal Arch Chapter 5464 in 1987 but resigned when I thought I was going to move to Bristol to run an Engineering Unit. This didn’t happen, however, and so I became a Founding Member of the St Michael Chapter 7833. I am also a member of the Minerva Mark.
I was asked to join The Daggards by Eddie Wildman in 2007 and have been a member ever since, giving performances and raising over £30,000 for local charities travelling to different Provinces over the country.
[W Bro Terry James Lynn PPJGW is an Account Examiner for the Lodge of St Michael 7833.]
Leslie Thornett
I was born in 1957 in Widnes, Cheshire (formally Lancashire) and spent all my childhood there, attending Moorfield road and Fairfield secondary modern schools. I left school at 15 and worked as a fitters mate for a short period prior to commencing a motor vehicle apprenticeship at a timber company, Southern – Evans which eventually became Magnet Kitchens. I attended Halton Technical College on a motor vehicle technicians course. During this time I worked a a selection of vehicles from Vauxhall Viva to Ford Transcontinental HGV's.
After serving my four year apprenticeship,one day I attended a broken down vehicle in Warrington outside the Army recruiting office, and on completion of the repair the recruitment Sergeant offered me a brew which I accepted and sfter this informal chat, while at home, I got thinking about the Army.
I made further enquiries and three months later I enlisted on the 21st of May 1977 (two days after my 20th birthday.) I chose the RAOC (late the Royal Logistic Corps) with the intention of transferring to the REME, but due to getting married in March 1978 shortly after my first posting to Germany I decided to remain in the RAOC as a driver, I served a total of twenty-two years, in the UK, Germany, Croatia, Bosnia, Northern Ireland and the USA, completing my service as a Staff Sergeant in May 1999. During this time I was a keen sportsman and represented the Corps at Rugby and Angling.
Upon the completion of my service I settled in Market Weighton and started my employment at the Army School of Transport (now The Defence School of Transport) where I worked from 1999 to April 2022 as a Instructional Officer. Initially I taught young service personnel how to drive LGV cat C and C+E before applying for and moving on to the Staff Training Department responsible for the recruitment and training of the school staff. During this period I completed a PGCE in Education with Huddersfield University via Bishop Burton College. Afterfour years I then moved within the school to the Advanced Training Wing to instruct potential unit military instructors in vehicle maintenance, off-road driving and combat driving techniques.
I am married to Jeannette. I have three children from my previous marriage and two step-children and we are blessed with seven grandchildren: three boys and four girls ranging from five months to eighteen years old. They all do their best to keep us busy which I think helps to keep me young at heart. I am a keen amateur BBQ chef and have been known to cook my Christmas Turkey, and smoke gammon on my grill.
I also enjoy target shooting and angling (both sea and course) when I get the chance.
Like most Brethren I was introduced to Masonry after having attended Masonic social events and then showing an interest in joining a Lodge. I had a chat with a work colleague who introduced me as a potential candidate to his Lodge, after following the due process I was Initiated into the Temple Belwood Lodge 8073 in March 2013 and passed on the 6th November 2013. I was raised on the Passed Masters Night on the 5th February 2014. I attended my Mother Lodge regularly over the years but a change in my personal life, the hour journey each way and reorganisation in my work schedule made it increasingly difficult to attend so in 2017 I applied and was accepted as a joining member of the Lodge of St Michael. I have continued to attend this Lodge whenever I have been able and hope to continue for many years to come.
[Brother Thornett is currently the Junior Warden of the Lodge of St Michael.]