Freemasonry
is deeply entrenched in Jamaican society. It enjoys support and patronage at
every level. A spry eighty five year old Jamaican Grand officer sees his role
in life as one of awe; to “Advise. Warn. Encourage.” The “ancient” is
Jamaica’s Governor General, His Excellency Sir Howard Cooke, ON, GCMG, GCVO,
CD. Prominent too among Jamaican freemasons are members of the Government and
the Opposition, the Executive, the Judiciary, the Civil Service, the Jamaica
Defence Force and the Jamaica Constabulary.
Freemasonry
in Jamaica is populated with men from every walk of life. Members are drawn
from commerce, law, publishing, medicine, tourism and academia. Airline
pilots, Customs and Immigration officers, coastguards, architects, engineers
and quantity surveyors, builders and tradesmen range under the banners of the three constitutions, those of the English
(EC), Irish (IC) and the Scottish (SC). Better still its freemasons are well
known and regarded highly by Jamaicans as a whole. The contrast with
freemasonry in the England could not be greater.
Geography
The
first thing to say is to describe the shape of the island of Jamaica. An
island in the Caribbean Sea Jamaica is about the size and shape of the English
county of Sussex. Jamaica is 140
miles east to west and sixty miles north to south. A spinal range of mountains
divides north from south with the bulk of Jamaicans living on the coastal
fringes. Of a population of more than two million almost two thirds live in
Greater Kingston on the alluvial Liguanea plain. Most of the Craft lodges
belonging to three constitutions are found in Kingston and Spanish Town.
Freemasonry is active in the other centers of population at Montego Bay,
Mandeville, St. Ann’s Bay, Port Maria, Linstead and on the Cayman Islands.
Panache
of Irish
There is no denying the vibrancy of Irish Freemasonry in Jamaica. It is expanding at phenomenal rate attracting many younger men and those in their middle years. Up to 1985 South Carolina Lodge #390, founded in 1928, was the only Irish lodge active. South Carolina Lodge owes its heritage to members of the 1st West India Regiment which served in Jamaica taking out the first warrant in 1906. Its warrant was surrendered when the regiment disbanded in 1927. Fortunately survivors sought and obtained its present warrant. Today there are five lodges with two in the process of being established. Irish freemasonry has changed Jamaica from a solitary outpost to that of fully fledged Province.
