A life of service adventure and fellowship
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On 23 June 2026, VW Bro Tony Shepherd, Assistant Metropolitan Grand Master, paid an official visit to Rahere Lodge No 2546 for a special occasion: to present a 60-year Long Service Certificate to W Bro Iain Nicolson. Despite the high temperatures and the disruption to transport, they were joined by more than 50 members and guests. Bro Iain himself had travelled with his guests from Australia.
Prior to the work of the Installation, the Escorting Officer placed two chairs in front of the Master’s pedestal facing West and half turned to face one another. VW Bro Tony Shepherd and W Bro Iain Nicolson were escorted to these seats. There was then a dialogue between the Brothers, which drew on Bro Nicolson’s biography.
Bro Iain was born at home in East Finchley during a WWII bombing raid, the son of a decorated surgeon. He attended Epsom College from age 12, and he joked about enduring freezing dormitories, iron beds and rules so strict that school made his Army career feel like a luxury holiday!
After a wake-up call from a recruiting sergeant, Bro Iain passed his medical exams at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and joined up. He was commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps as 2nd Lieutenant in 1958, once driving a horse-cavalry unit from Benghazi to Lagos and back on an adventurous training run across Africa.
Army Service took him worldwide, handling medical duties in Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, and Cyprus, alongside running ceremonial first aid for Royal weddings and Trooping the Colour in the early 1970s.
After leaving the service of the Queen, Dr Nicolson trained as a GP in Hampshire and became a partner in Gosport. In 1977, he traded British winters for South Gippsland, Australia. Settling in Sale, Victoria, he spent decades in General Practice caring for locals. He rose to be a St John Ambulance Commissioner in 2005 and served on the board for 10 years. He has four children and three granddaughters.
Brother Iain was Initiated into Rahere Lodge on 17 May 1966. He was Passed in Cadogan Lodge. Over the years, he has been a member of the Lodge Elliot in Malacca, Stamford Raffles Lodge in Singapore, the Keys of Munster Lodge in Germany, and Toora, Amalthea, Servicemen’s Commemoration, and Gippsland Lodges in Australia, usually taking the Office of Secretary, Treasurer or Almoner. In the United Grand Lodge of Victoria, he is Past Grand Inspector of Workings.
At the close of the conversation, Bro Tony summarised his life as one of service, adventure and of course, Masonic fellowship. Bro Nicolson was presented with the framed Certificate to much applause, and then congratulated warmly by the outgoing Worshipful Master, W Bro Levansri Makalanda and later by his successor, W Bro John Hitchin.
VW Bro Tony was joined by the Lodge’s Visiting Officer, W Bro Martin Faulks, and kindly Escorted by W Bro David Dunn, Metropolitan Grand Standard Bearer, and W Bros Ryan Chang Kit and Simon Moore, Metropolitan Grand Stewards.
Rahere Lodge (www.rahere.org), and later its Chapter, was established “for the convenience of the staff and students at the Hospital of Saint Bartholomew, London” – which is why it was natural for Bro Iain to join. The Lodge was consecrated in the Great Hall of the Hospital on 29 June 1895 by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. It was profiled in the Spring 2014 Arena (https://www.londonmasons.org.uk/Portals/0/_Arena_Archive/Arena_16.pdf)
The Lodge derives its name from Prior Rahere who founded Barts Hospital as well as the nearby Priory Church of St Bartholomew in AD 1123. The Lodge currently meets and dines well at Butchers’ Hall, Smithfield, across the road from Barts, having met in the Great Hall of the Hospital for many years. Most of the 62 members are doctors, or work in healthcare, but there is no prerequisite. Rahere is the Universities Scheme Lodge for Queen Mary University of London and Barts Medical College and a founder member of the Association of Medical University & Legal Lodges.
This article is part of Arena Magazine Issue 61 – Summer 2026.
Arena Magazine is the official online magazine of the London Freemasons – Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Metropolitan Grand Chapter of London.
Read more articles in Arena Issue 61 here.
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