As we reflect on the first world war, you may be interested to know about Sgt. Major Bro. Charles Ward V.C. (1877 – 1921) who was initiated into Loyal Commercial Lodge No:2720 in September 1913. He’d won the Victoria Cross and was the last recipient of the V.C. to be decorated by Queen Victoria herself, for an unbelievable act of courage during the Boer war.
He was a physical training instructor. Little was recorded about him until the 1970s when W. Bro. Kenneth Chapman researched newspaper reports of his funeral and delivered a lecture on this exceptional Freemasons at a meeting of Loyal Commercial Lodge.