Stapleton Lodge of Instruction has donated £100 to the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen Association in memory of Dave Stokes. Dave, who passed away in 2019, went through the chair of his Bristol lodge and was also a long-standing a member of Hambrook Lodge at Stapleton. A Bristolian through and through, he nevertheless joined the Royal Highland Fusiliers as a piper, and many brethren around the Province will have heard him expertly ‘pipe in the haggis’ at various Burns Nights. Another of his skills was that of a bookbinder, and his widow, Jane, has donated to the Lodge of Instruction a bible which he restored. [Being an unconsecrated LoI as such, it will be used for demonstration purposes.]
In memory of Dave, Preceptor Jon Bright is pictured here handing a cheque for £100 to local fundraiser, Chris “Half-Legless” Jones at Fromesbridge Mill, Whitminster.
Lodges at Stapleton and Downend regularly donate to BLESMA, not least in memory of Noel O’Driscoll, who sadly and suddenly departed whilst master of Tyndall Lodge. Noel raised a good deal of money for BLESMA over the years and brethren may well recall a quartet of brothers he introduced into Freemasonry accomplishing a 104-mile charity trek across the Normandy beaches in his memory.
Consequently, Chris Jones is well known to many brethren. On the very wet day he received this latest cheque, he chose to make the 11-mile each-way journey from his home in Churchdown by tricycle; no mean feat for a fellow with one leg!
Our thanks to Dick Smith for this article.
