THE GRAND COUNCIL OF ROYAL AND SELECT MASTERS OF ENGLAND AND WALES AND ITS DISTRICTS AND COUNCILS OVERSEAS

DISTRICT OF OXFORDSHIRE, BERKSHIRE AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Announcement

 

Announcement

Companions

It is with great sorrow that we announce the sudden death of R.Ill.Comp. Timothy Hancock, our District Grand Master. Tim suffered a heart attack at his home on the evening of Saturday, 6^th January.

R.Ill.Comp. Phillip Purves, P.G.Coun., is now Deputy District Grand Master In Charge. 

We are all in shock. Tim was a credit to the many Orders of Freemasonry in which he was a member and one of the nicest men we could ever hope to know. We will miss him dreadfully.

Sincerely and fraternally,

Malcolm Summers

Dist.G.P.C.W.

 

 

 

Eulogy

Tim was born in Bletchley on the 4^th of February 1954. The family then moved to the Isle of Wight where his brother was born in 1955 and where they grew up. After graduating from Emmanuel College at Cambridge University Tim found employment as a Maths teacher at Aylesbury Grammar School.

A Lewis, Tim was initiated, passed and raised in his father’s lodge meeting on the Isle of Wight, Yar Valley Lodge 8367, where he remained a member.

He joined Fairway Lodge in 1980 becoming WM in 1990, and was exalted in Fairway Chapter 8614 (now Aylesbury Fairway Chapter) in 1984 becoming MEZ in 1994. He was advanced in St Barnabas Lodge of Mark Masters no 97 in 1981 and became WM in 1989.

He possessed first class ritual skills and belonged to most of the Companion Orders, including Royal Ark Mariner, Knights Templar, KTP, Allied Masonic Degrees, Secret Monitor, Scarlet Cord, Red Cross of Constantine, Royal Order of Scotland, and the Operatives, achieving high office in many. In every unit of which he was a member he held office – in many cases as secretary or treasurer.

Tim was a member of eight Councils of Royal and Select Masters, being a founder member of two and an honorary member in one. He was appointed as our Deputy District Grand Master in 2014 and became our District Grand Master in 2019.

Tim took a great interest in the history of freemasonry and authored many interesting papers. He was a leading light in the Buckinghamshire Association for Masonic Research and edited its annual publication.

His other great passion was cricket and was often to be seen at Lord’s or the Oval and other cricket grounds.

Tim was unmarried; his health and mobility had been a cause for concern but even so his sudden and unexpected death was a grievous loss to us all. Every tribute paid to Tim has mentioned that he was one of the nicest, friendliest people in masonry and indeed elsewhere. He is mourned by his brother Peter and all Freemasons who had the privilege of knowing him.