Mansel Hughes 50 Years in Craft Masonry & 40 Years in Royal Arch

It is a great pleasure to be here in Aeron Lodge for a second month in a row to present a Long Service Award to yet another stalwart of both Aeron Lodge and the Province of West Wales.

W Bro Mansel, you were Initiated on 22nd March 1973 in a double ceremony with the late W Bro David Howells. The Worshipful Master that evening was W Bro Tom Adams, and the Inner Guard was W Bro Rev’d J Keith Davies.

You worked your way through the various offices of the lodge, finally becoming Worshipful Master in 1986. You were Almoner of the lodge between 1998 and 2001, when you took over as lodge secretary, a post you filled until 2007 when W Bro Arwel Williams took over.

In 2003, you were a founder member of the Richard Warburton Lodge, where you were Assistant Director of Ceremonies in 2009.

You are also a member of Kensington Lodge of Installed Masters, which you joined in 2014, a mere 28 years after you qualified to become a member.

In the Craft Province you had your first provincial rank in 1993 and you must have impressed somebody, because in 1996 you were promoted to the rank of Past Provincial Junior Grand Warden. In 2013 you were appointed to the acting rank of Provincial Senior Grand Warden. The Provincial Junior Grand Warden that year was W Bro Jackie Jenkins from Fishguard. You both had a great year, and it was a pleasure to be on the Provincial Team with you.

In the Holy Royal Arch, you were Exalted on 11th November 1976 into the Ystwyth Chapter no 1072. You served the Chapter as Most Excellent Zerubbabel in 1995.

You were a Founder Member and Primus Joshua of the Aeron and Peterwell Chapter no 7208, and you became the second Most Excellent Zerubbabel of the Chapter in the year 2000.

In Provincial Grand Chapter you were first appointed to the rank of Past Grand Standard Bearer. In 1996 you were promoted to the acting rank of Provincial Grand Registrar and between 2015 and 2017 you served the province as 2nd Provincial Grand Principal.

In Supreme Grand Chapter you were appointed to the rank of Past Grand Standard Bearer in 2007.

W Bro Mansel not only have you had a glittering masonic career in the lodge, but you have also been a cornerstone of the Masonic Caravan Club for many years. You are a former president of the club and a regular at their rallies.

W Bro Mansel, you were born on the 21st of May 1935. When you left school you trained as a plumber, qualifying in 1957. You decided that plumbing wasn’t for you, so you went to Cardiff Met University and qualified as an Environmental Health Officer in 1959.

You married Linda in October 1959, and you went on to have three children, Carol, Jonathan, and Alison. In addition to your studying to be an EHO in 1959, you were also teaching students plumbing to final City and Guilds standard.

You emigrated to Ceredigion in May 1967 to take up a position as an Environmental Officer and Surveyor with Aberaeron and New Quay District Councils.

There was a reorganisation in 1972 and you were appointed as Deputy Chief Environmental Officer to Ceredigion County Council where you continued to work until you retired in 1996.

After your retirement you continued to work for the real Caravan Club, not the masonic one. You assessed the suitability of potential sites, and you covered a huge area of South Wales.

In the early days of your time in Ceredigion you met Nigel Adams and Fred Moulton and the rest, as they say is history.

W Bro Mansel, you have been a popular, high profile and dedicated freemason for over 50 years. I imagine that the members of Aeron Lodge had a lot of fun with you on the ladder back in the day.

Your family, work and masonic lives are a fine example to us all and I am delighted to be the one presenting these well-deserved certificates and badges to mark 50 years in Craft & 40 Years in Royal Arch Freemasonry.