£1500 presented to Sir Gabriel Wood’s Mariners’ Home

The photograph above is of RWM Bro Allan I MacFeate with Stephen Bradley, the General Manager of the Mariners’ Home, as he accepts the cheque from the No XII Charity Drive.  The photo appeared in a recent Greenock Telegraph along with the short article below.

“As freemasons, the brethren of Lodge Greenock Kilwinning No XII have the concept of helping those in need at the heart of all that they do.  This is reflected in the importance placed on the annual charity drives. Recently Right Worshipful Master Bro Capt. Allan I. MacFeate presented a cheque for £1500 to Stephen Bradley of Sir Gabriel Wood’s Mariners’ Home.  Each year, No XII’s Master has the opportunity to nominate the good causes that will be supported by the Charity Drive.  Naturally enough, the choices made reflect his interests and connections.  It was no surprise when Bro Capt. MacFeate, as a retired master mariner, nominated the Mariners’ Home. 

The widow of Sir Gabriel Wood founded the home as the result of a bequest left by her husband on his death. He had been Commissary General of Accounts for Canada.  The son of a Greenock merchant, he was born in Gourock in 1757.

The foundation stone of the Mariners’ was laid in October 1850, with full Masonic Honours, by Sir Michael Robert Shaw Stewart, 7^th Baronet of Greenock and Blackhall who was a member of No XII and, at that time, Provincial Grand Master of Renfrewshire West.  Opened in 1854, the Mariners’ has been extended and refurbished over the years and is now held in trust by the British Sailors’ Society and administered by a local volunteer committee.  The Committee was delighted to receive the handsome donation for the benefit of the residents and to assist with its good work.

This year the brethren of No XII will distribute over £7000 and more presentations are yet to be made. 

Lodge Greenock Kilwinning No XII is Inverclyde’s oldest organisation having been instituted on 27^th December 1728.”  

Recently our own Bro Ivan Scott PM moved to live at the Mariners’ and he tells me that he is settling in well and enjoying his new surroundings.