At The Sign Of The Perfect Ashlar

yet larger distinction in the Craft as a foremost patron of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement . Of this body he was for many years the Secretary . Bro . Kentish had a lengthened career in Masonry , although his age was only sixty when he expired , and his devotion and services to the Craft were recognised in 18 97 by his appointment to the past rank of

Standard Bearer . His successor in the secretaryship of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement , Bro . Joseph Russell , had the same honour conferred on him by the Duke of Connanght in 1901 . «*;» < r > . <&¦

Bro . Kentish was well-known in Blackheath , where he had resided for many years . He was a prominent member of the Congregational Church and took a great interest in manv of the local institutions , and his activities were many and varied . The funeral took place at Lee Cemetery , the Rev . E . Fotheringhain officiating at an impressive service .

« s > <& <& The news of theideath of Bro . W . E . Chapman , P . A . G . D . C , although the sad event was not wholly unexpected by his closest friends , came as a great blow to many . He passed away at his residence at the Olio ' s Kopje Diamond

Mines , Kimberley , South Africa , on August 27 th , after a long illness , which had rendered him more or less an invalid for some eighteen months .

Bro . Chapman was a singularly magnetic personage , who attracted and endeared himself to a host of friends with whom he came in contact throughout a singularly varied career . He has filled many parts in his day , and probably never distinguished himself so much as when , all ignorant of mining , he went out to South Africa to captain a forlorn hope ,

and to pull together in some way what then seemed almost a derelict'mine—Otto ' s Kopje . Connected in early days with the famous Bro . Imrc Kiralfy , and an arranger of some of the remarkable tours of this great showman in America , he had developed powers of organisation which secured him the position of press manager at the very successful series of

Earl ' s Court Exhibitions . In London for many years Bro . Will Chapman was a well-known figure and a contributor to many leading journals , and to quote an obituary notice which appeared in the Kimberley Star , " his brilliant and caustic pen exposed many a fraud and made public many a virtue . But the call of Africa came to him , and he passed from the

brilliancy of a London circle and all the hon mots of the Saturday night dinners of the Savage Club , to the lonliness of an almost derelict mine outside Kimberley , to its reorganisation and to its management . " It will be remembered that he was entertained at a remarkably successful dinner at the Hotel Cecil on his lirst departure , and on the occasion of

his return to Kimberley after a trip home about two years ago , he was entertained by his fellow members of the Savage Club , the Lord Chief Justice ( Lord Alverstone ) presiding . When he returned , however , his friends were shocked at his appearance . He was no longer the gay and debonair soldier who had wanted to hold Otto ' s Kopje all through the

dark . days of the siege , and who had refused to vacate it until ordered to do so by the military authorities . Xo longer was he the energetic soldier who had been captain of the Otto's Kopje section of Kimberley ' s defensive force , and had enlivened the siege with tales of his experience of the siege of Paris . Xo longer was he the brilliant penman whose

articles in the Standard had been trenchant , whose poem on General French's relief of Kimberley had been engrossed in the town ' s address to that General , and who had turned upon and rent the anonymous pamphleteers who had besmirched the conduct of John Cecil Rhodes during the siege of Kimberley . Xo longer the brilliant raconteur and inimitable

anecdote teller . '' A man without an enemy "—such might be the verdict upon him . Among those who followed his remains to the grave there were many around who remembered his

unremitting kindness , his charm of manner , his attractive personality , and his knowledge of art and love of music . He was borne to his rest by the principal officers of the lodge , preceded by the representative of the church of which he was a member , and followed by his widow , his step-son , Jack Casons Williams , and a host of sympathising friends .

Of Bro . Chapman ' s career as a Mason , it may be said that his activities and usefulness were equal in every respect to that which he exhibited in other walks of life . He was initiated in 1871 , but it was not until 1886 that he began to exhibit in Masonry that zeal which was afterwards recognised by his appointment in 18 9 6 as Assistant Grand Director of

Ceremonies . In that year he joined the Drury Lane Lodge , Xo . 2127 , of which he subsequently became Worshipful Master . In the year following he assisted in founding the Savage Club Lodge , of which he also became Worshipful Master , and was for mam * years its Secretary . He also took

an active part in founding other lodges and chapters , besides being a member ot and actively taking part in the working and ceremonies in connection with Knights Templary , Rose Croix , and other degrees , in all of which he never ceased to regard seriously his responsibilities in connection with the Charities of the Order .

«_>> < 8 > © The Consecration Ceremony of the Guildhall Lodge , of which the coming Lord Mayor is to be the first Master , will take place in the Ballroom of the Mansion House . This will he the third occasion on which that room has been used for

a Masonic Ceremony , viz ., the meeting of the Drury Lane Lodge , when its Master , Sir Henry A . Isaacs , was Lord Mayor , and a similar meeting of the Alfred Xewton Lodge , during ( he Mavoraltyot Sir Alfred Xewton . Masonic Banquets have been more frequent at the official home of London ' s Chief Magistrate , the first we believe being given b y Sir

Francis Wyatt Truscott , as Lord Mayor , when the M . W . Grand Master , H . R . H . The Prince of Wales , was the honoured guest . Sir John Staples followed the example set a few years after , when Master of the St . Botolph's Lodge , and not the least interesting will be the coming meeting of the Guildhall Lodge , from the fact ( hat till the members are recruited from the Corporation of London .

< 2 > © «_» Our veteran contemporary , The Keystone , announces in its issue of September 23 rd , its amalgamation with its able but more juvenile collegue , The American Tyler . The amalgamation of the two leading Masonic Journals of the United Stales

should produce an ideal representative of all that is ablest and best in Masonry . We wish the combine a long and prosperous career .

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