The District Grand Lodge & Madras - Connected History

FREEMASONRY first arrived in India during the time of the East India Company; Most Lodges of those days were military Lodges, which moved with their Regiments. No details are available in the District Grand Lodge relating to those Lodges. There may be some records available in the Grand Lodge Library. In respect of those long ago years of the dim and distant past, it would suffice therefore to quote from the work of that great Masonic historian, R F Gould whose “History of Freemasonry” is a standard book of reference of the years from 1752, when Captain Edmund Pascal was appointed the first Provincial Grand Master down to 1866 when this came to be designated “the District Grand Lodge”. This is what Gould has to say.

Provincial Grand Masters on The Coast of Coromandel of Madras or of Presidency of Madras

1767 Captain Edmund Pascal.

1786 Brigadier-General Mathew Horne

1790 John Chamier, M.C.S

1806 Terence Gahagan, M.D. (Acting)

1812 Herbert Compton, Barrister-at-Law (Acting)

1813 Herbert Compton (afterwards Hon.Sir.Herbert Compton Kt.Puisne Judge, Bombay)

1814 Richard Jebb, LL.D. Barrister-at-law (Acting)

1820 George Lys (Acting)

1826 Sir Herbert Compton.

1840 The Right Hon'ble John Baron Elphinstone,G.C.H. Governor of Madras

1852 Robert Hudleston Williamson, M.C.S

District Grand Masters Of The District Grand Lodge Of Madras

1856 Lieut.Col. Willam Pitt MacDonald, Madras Army (First District Grand Master.

1867 Arthur MacDonald Ritchie, B.A., Barrister-at-Law

1875 John Miller, Barrister-at-Law

1879 Major Aubery William Ogilvie Saunders, Royal Scots Fusiliers

1884 Arthur Morell Saunders

1888 The Right Hon'ble Lord Conne mara, G.C.I.E., Governor of Madras.

1891 Sir George Montagomere John Moore, K.T., C.I.E

1901 The Right Hon'ble Lord Ampthill, G.C.I.E. Governor of Madras

1906 The Hon'ble Herbert Bradley, G.S.I., I.C.S

1910 The Hon'ble Sir Murray Hammick, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., I.C.S

1914 Hon'ble Lewllyn E.Buckley, C.S.I., I.C.S

1922 The Hon'ble Sir Archibald Young Gipps Campbell, K.C.I.E. C.S.I., C.B.E., V.D., I.C.S

1933 Sir George Townsend Boag, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., I.C.S

1946 Tiruchendurai Venkataraman Muthukrishna Aiyer, B.A. B.L.

1967 Lt.Col. G.S.Gill, C.I.E., O.B.E., I.M.S. (Retd.)

1978 Arumana Parameswaran Tampi, B.A.

2001 Kumar Ravindra Nath Menon, M.A. (Oxon)

2011 Theophilus Arputharaj Devagnanam, FIIPE