Ancient Order of Druids in the 1920s

[Heron Hiker]

Barry,

Girdler might be near Herne Bay in Kent, or possibly in Ireland.
He moved from London to Kent for health reasons.
There is a family rumour of an Ireland connection but we don't know what.

I attach the Goodfellow front
and the whole set.

David.

[Heron Hiker]

This is a close up of the Grand Lodge of England jewel.
It looks very much like the Freemasons coat of Arms
but it is illustrated and labelled as an AOD jewel
in Victoria Solt Dennis' book
Discovering Friendly & Fraternal Societies.

David.

[BarryW]

Hi David

Yes the collar is that worn by a past arch druid i.e. a past chairman of the lodge. The coat of arms is that adopted by the AOD - a druid on one side and an ancient briton on the other. It also looks a lot like the Victoria Cross shape, I don't know whether that was intentional?

I have amanged to track down  Chapter 29. In the earlu 20's it is recorded as meeting at Stanley Restaurant, Lavender Hill, SW11.

It is possible that the lodge was in Kent. I am still working on that one.

Regards

Barry

[Heron Hiker]

It's not a Victoria Cross.  The Victoria Cross has square ends.
The indented ends make it a Maltese Cross.

On the Girdler medal,
is the orange letter a C
or is it a P to make the letters for Past Arch? 

[BarryW]

Ahh I see now....

The letter is a stylised P - hence making it a past-arch jewel

B

[Heron Hiker]

I have a picture of my Great-grandfather's funeral procession in 1928.
We have identified the chapel in Herne Bay, Kent where he was living at the time.
It is a very low resolution picture but I wonder if there are any other clues.

David.

[BarryW]

Hi Dave

Nice picture. The AOD has its own funeral servcie which goes alongside the normal one.

Good news on the Lodge identification front. One of the AOD members in Margate has a lodge list form 1926, which records:

The Girdler (Lightship) Lodge No 679 was meeting at the Pier Hotel, Herne Bay on Fridays.

At that time Chapter 29 met at the Balham Hotel Balham SW12

Hope this helps

Regards

Barry

[Heron Hiker]

Barry,

Sorry for the delay.  Thank you VERY much for the information.

I wonder if there might be records giving dates of membership of Goodfellow Lodge, Chapter 29 and Girdler Lodge?  Do the two plain FSC medals refer just to Chapter 29 - or might there be more?

Having grown up with my Grandmother claiming that her father was a Druid, I was very excited by your claim that AOD still survives.  What does it do?  I guess I've got some more research to do - this time to satisfy my present-day curiosity.

David.

[BarryW]

Hi Dave

Unfortunatley all records of these Lodges/Chapters have now gone. The Order lost most of its records in the war. What is left is all over the place. You may find some records of individual lodges in local history collections.

What is most interesting to me is to collect bits of stories about Lodges I dont know. This is why your photo and the jewels are so interesting.

Yes the Order still survives but there are only about 11 lodges left in the Country although there are many more in Europe, USA, Australia etc. These belong to a sister order the United Ancient Order of Druids, a friendly society which broke away from the AOD in the 1830's.

The AOD are a bit like the masons or the RAOB in that they meet in Lodges and have ceremonies. They mainly have a social and charitable basis to them. The AOD can be described as the oldest of all the "modern" druid orders but like masonry there is no religious or political character to them.

The chapter jewels you show are Supreme Royal Arch medals. These show your ancester was both a member of his local chapter but also the national chapter. The chapter was  side order to the normal AOD lodges (called the primitive lodge).

Try having a look at
http://www.aod-uk.org.uk/



I hope this helps. Where abouts are you in the Country?