The Grand Lodge Certificate is to Bro Harold Palmer who was initiated on the 19th May 1948 at the age of 36 into Loyalty Lodge No.243, passed on the 15th September 1948 and Raised on the 17th November 1948.
It has been customary for over two hundred years to present a certificate from the United Grand Lodge of England after being raised to the third degree, the certificate contains many Masonic Symbols and will state the Brothers name Lodge and the dates that each degree was attained and the date it was sealed by the Grand Lodge.
Bro Palmers Grand Lodge Certificate bears the Coat of Arms for the Duke of Devonshire, Edward William Spencer the 10th Duke of Devonshire who was Grand Master from 1947 to 1950. It has the seal of the United Grand Lodge of England on the left-hand side is signed by the Grand Secretary at the bottom and signed by Bro Palmer on the right-hand side.
The handmade frame is made of Oak and has a pillar either side topped with globes, at the top in the centre the Square and Compasses and at the base of each pillar a trowel all these symbols decorated with gold leaf.
What is also interesting is that the framing of Grand Lodge Certificates is something that generally doesn’t happen and, in the lecture, you receive when presented with your certificate you are informed that it should not be framed, so it would appear that the frame pre-dates the certificate currently held in it by as much as a century when It was more common practice to display them.
