Richard Henry Coleman

Richard Henry Coleman was a Freemason and member of Lodge Temperance 2557 who served in the 2nd World War. A letter to the Provincial Grand Secretary of Northumberland from WBro John Sowerby, Secretary, and dated 7th November 1947 attached a list of the names and service of forty three Brethren and Wbro Richard is shown as volunteering for the Civil Defence Service.

At the Lodge Temperance 2557 meeting held at the Royal Assembly Rooms, Westgate Road, on 16th May 1921, Richard was proposed by Bro R. West, Senior Warden and seconded by Bro Barnard D. L. Bell as a fit and proper person to be made a Freemason.

He was a 41 year old commercial traveller residing at 4, Lansdown Crescent, Newcastle upon Tyne. A successful ballot was held the following month on 20th June and he was initiated into the mysteries and privileges of Ancient Freemasonry on 19th September 1921. He was passed to the second or Fellowcraft degree on 20th January 1922 and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason on 20th March 1922.

He had a long and successful Masonic career with Lodge Temperance 2557 and in 1938 he was installed in the chair of King Solomon to become Worshipful Master for the ensuing year.

The 1939 register shows that Bro Richard was an air raid precautions warden.

 The Civil Defence Service was a civilian volunteer organisation established by the Home Office in 1935 as Air Raid Precautions (ARP), its name was officially changed to the Civil Defence Service (CD) in 1941. Civil Defence included the ARP Wardens as well as firemen (initially the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) and latterly the National Fire Service (NFS)), fire watchers (later the Fire Guard), rescue, first aid post and stretcher parties. Over 1.9 million people served within the CD and nearly 2,400 lost their lives to enemy action.

Bro Richard was born in Bermondsey, London on 10th March 1880 to Edward and Elizabeth (Bessie) Coleman. Edward was a book bind from London and his mother Elizabeth Cowan was from Carlisle, Cumbria. They married in Bermondsey, Southwark in 1865 and had ten children of which six survived childhood.

  • Fanny Jane (1865 – 1870)
  • Elizabeth Ann b 1866
  • Agnes Isabella b 15/12/1868
  • William Robinson Richard (1870 – 1871)
  • Edward James (1872 – 1958)
  • Fanny Jane (1874 – 1922)
  • Bessie Cowan (1875 – 1877)
  • Alice Chatfield (05/10/1877 – 08/03/1956)
  • Richard Henry (10/03/1880 – 05/02/1957)
  • James William b 20/05/1881

Bro Richard married Amelia Cail in 1903 in Middlesbrough and they had three children – Doris Elizabeth, Marjorie and Richard Edward.

Helen, his great granddaughter, recounts that Bro Richard was a waiter for British Rail hotels. He moved north to Harrogate and was head waiter at the Majestic Hotel where he met his wife Amelia, before moving to Newcastle to take up the job of head waiter at the Royal Station Hotel.  He was a good magician and would sell fancy goods on his day off to the travellers on the ships at Newcastle quayside.

Bro Richard died on 5th February 1957 and is buried in Whitley Bay Cemetery and Crematorium. At the Lodge Temperance meeting on 19th February 1957, the Worshipful Master Wbro Wilfred Walton made reference to the death of Wbro Coleman Past Provincial Grand Standard Bearer which had occurred since their last meeting and paid tribute to his loyalty to and his sustained interest in the Lodge to the end.