A total of 77 attended this years ‘Active Officers Dinner’, held at the Livermead House Hotel, Torbay Road, Torquay on Saturday 24th February 2024.
Many active officers and their partners and wives were joined by the Provincial Grand Master, R.W. Bro Nicholas Ball and his wife Gill along with many members of the executive present and past. Grace before a superb 3 course dinner was given by the Provincial Grand Chaplain, W. Bro Dr. Adrian Rogers. After the meal the loyal toast was given by the Provincial Grand Master, this was followed by a toast given by W. Bro Dr. Richard Ebrey, Deputy Provincial Grand Master to the Provincial Grand Master to which he was delighted to respond, allowing him to remark on the past year and to thank all of his Officers. This was followed by a very important toast by the Provincial Junior Grand Warden, W. Bro David Wilson to the ladies. Flowers were then presented to the wives of the Provincial Executive and Wardens along with bottles of gin, ‘Wardens Tipple’ to certain other brethren. Hampers containing all the raffle prizes won at all the hundreds of meetings attended were also distributed to the Active Officers.
Lastly a presentation cheque for £3000.00 was presented to the Provincial Grand Master. This was money raised during the year by all the active officers for the PGM’s Membership Building Initiatives.
The evening continued with a disco and a vocal singer. Later in the evening a few brave Active Officers took to the microphone for Karaoke much to the delight of all those attending. This included the PGM! who had a standing ovation getting everyone to join in on the dance floor. Others included the Senior Warden, W. Bro Martyn Aldridge who was then joined by the Past Deputy Provincial Grand Master, W. Bro. Peter Keaty along with the PGM but all were out classed by the wives who took to the stage and gave several performances much to the delight of all their partners and were aptly named ‘THE MASONETTES’.
A fun great night was had by all.
“The times when we came close to floundering will be forgotten and the friendship, fraternity and laughter are what we will all remember”.
All the pictures taken on the night by WBro John Smerdon PAGDC can be viewed by going to the album link ‘Active 2023/4 Officers Dinner’ – Click on https://photos.app.goo.gl/n5vaLsUxucw44spe8