Major Henry F Kingdon. Detail from a photograph take in 1902 of the Regimental Officers at Shorncliffe Camp.

Major Henry Foulkes Kingdon was one of three brothers to serve the Lodge.

He was born on 16 April 1862, the fourth child and third son of Paul Augustine Kingdon and Elizabeth Fortescue Foulkes. His father Paul was a Barrister, born in 1820 to Thomas Hocking Kingdon vicar of Bridgerule, in Bridgerule, Devon. Elizabeth was born in 1828, in Newton St Petrock also in Devon, and her father was vicar of Shebbear.

Henry was first apprenticed to a London Feltmaker, Henry Sawtell in 1881 before becoming an underwriters clerk and over his career became a marine insurance underwriter. He became a Freeman of London on 8 April 1907. During the Great War he advised the Government on marine insurance, being to old for active duty.

He married Mary Kathleen Weld on St Valentine’s Day 1905 at Lancaster Gate. She was born in Madras, India in 1875, the daughter of a member of the Indian Civil Service, the ‘Heaven Born’. The couple were presented with a 1793 George III silver waiter by Elizabeth Jones on the occasion of their wedding. They had five children: Henry Paul (1907-1989), Mary Peternel (1908-2003), Joan Elizabeth (1910-1989), John (1914) and Margaret Weld (1916-1971). Henry married On 14.02.1905 Mary Kathleen Weld on 14 February 1905 at Lancaster Gate. Mary was born in Madras in 1875 the daughter of an Indian Civil Servant, and their family was from Ireland. They had 3 children and the family home was at Maybury Wood, Maybury Hill, Woking, where Henry would pass away in 1922, aged 60.

He was a member of the Regiment rising to the rank of Major.

Initiated in November 1892, he progressed through the offices until he was installed in the Chair in January 1901. his next meeting saw him initiate both his brothers Everard and William. At the same meeting he presented new collars to the Lodge.

Appointed to London Rank in October 1912, he became Director of Ceremonies from 1915 to 1917. He was then installed in the Chair for the second time.

In later life he was ordained, and in 1965 the Rev H F Kingdon presented the Lodge with a bound book of the Summonses of the Lodge from 1 December 1892 to 28 April 1920.

He also presented his Hall Stone Jewel to the Museum of Freemasonry.

Major H F Kingdon’s Sword, with VR Cypher