On Wednesday 20th September 2023, The Lodge of Erskine No. 1566 held their Special Erskine Home Meeting at the Masonic hall in Luckinsford Rd, Inchinnan. The original plan of holding the meeting at the premises of Erskine Home had to be changed due to the demand for tickets, so it had to be moved to the lodge to accommodate the numbers.

The meeting was opened by the RWM Bro. Ian Wood who then welcomed all the brethren and received a deputation from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Renfrewshire East, headed by the PGM Bro. Ronald E. Fraser.

Following that, we had a Deputation from the Grand Lodge of Scotland, headed by the Depute Grand Master Bro. William H (Bud) Gauld and PM of Lodge Union & Crown No. 307 - one of our guest speakers for the evening. The Grand Lodge Deputation was piped in by Bro. Johnny Gauld also a PM of Lodge Union & Crown No. 307, Bud's son and our other guest speaker for the evening. After the welcomes, the meeting was then closed to set the hall up for the 2 main speakers.

Master of Ceremonies, PM Bro. Dr Iain McPhee then took over and introduced the first speaker: Bro. Johnny Gauld. His talk entitled “Gaun a Daun’er” was expertly delivered. It was about how Freemasonry has impacted his life and influenced his travels, and done in a very humorous, poignant and symbolic way which went down very well with the sell-out audience.

PM Bro. Dr Iain then introduced the Depute Grand Master, Bro. Bud Gauld – who presented his talk on “Freemasonry and Freemasons and how they have impacted your lives” – which was very informative and thought provoking and also went down extremely well with the audience. It was a great delight for the audience to have father and son coming along to support this very worthy cause.

Following both speakers, Dr Iain fielded questions from the assembled brethren and thereafter brought a very successful evening to a close with rapturous applause from all for a very successful evening all round and to allow the presentation of the cheque.

There followed a fantastic harmony with the purvey being laid on by the brethren of 1566 going down very well - with a large selection of goodies for all our visitors. Special thanks to the ladies who did some of the hard work at home with baking and sandwich making.

All in all a very successful evening and we are very grateful to our guest speakers Bro’s Bud and Johnny and to everyone who came along or donated for their support to this very worthy cause. The evening raised a fantastic £1500 for The Erskine Home Recreation Facility.

Bro. Robert McPhee PM

The Lodge of Erskine No. 1566