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I am pleased to share the following information with all Freemasons within the Province of Northumberland. Once again we have been able to assist brethren and their families in times of need by applying to the four main charities.
The following information and statistics are from the four main central Masonic Charity’s for the year 2010.

Grand Charity (GC)
This charity is to support Freemasons and their dependants when their circumstance in life has changed. For the year 2010 the Grand Charity has helped 55 individuals in this Province to the amount of £143,520.
Over the last five years we have received a total of £466,151 helping over 242 Freemasons and their families.

Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys (RMTGB)
The Trust has helped 32 young boys and girls of this Province in 2010 and the total amount of money which has been given to children of Freemasons over the five years is £436,610.

Masonic Samaritan Fund (MSF)
The main aim of this fund is to provide assistance to those who are unable to obtain or have to wait for unacceptable long periods of time for NHS treatment and who cannot afford private treatment without suffering further hardship.
In 2010 the fund has approved and paid out £85,364, helping 21 individuals and the running total for the last five years is £237,514 assisting a total of 42 cases.
Since early 2010 this fund has also taken over the role from the Grand Charity of providing mobility scooters, stair lifts and home adaption etc.

Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution (RMBI)
The RMBI have been caring for older Freemasons and their partners for over 160 years and we are very privileged to have one of the most modern homes here in Northumberland - Scarborough Court located in Cramlington.
The RMBI supported 26 beneficiaries in 2010 to the tune of £105,959. (We do not have the numbers available as yet for the last 5 years.)

The grand total funding for all the charities in 2010 was £438,046 and for the last five years is £1,246.234.


Training and Communication Team
During 2010 the Training and Communication Team held two training sessions for Lodge Almoners and a total of 55 Almoners attended these events.
In 2011 it is my intention to visit as many Masonic buildings within the Province as possible in order to give an explanation of the work of the four main charities.
See Training Update for dates and venues.

If you would like me to visit your Lodge please contact and we will try arranging a suitable date.

All Lodge Almoners should have received a “Hand Book” in the autumn of 2010 which should be of great assistance to the Lodge and its members.

The Province of Northumberland has taken part in a “trial” of the new joint “Application for Support to the Central Masonic Grant-Making Charities” forms. These forms have been designed to help Lodge Almoners / Visiting Brothers by bring all 3 separate application forms into one (Grand Charity/RMTGB/Samaritan Fund) thus saving multi applications to the different charities.

If anyone would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact me:

Norman West
Provincial Grand Almoner
Tel: 0191 2630204
Mob: 07951828044
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it