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Sir Henry Thirkill (1887 - 1971)
Provincial Grand Master 1944 - 1969
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Provincial Grand Lodge of Cambridgeshire
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Extract from
"Cambridgeshire Encompassed",
by kind permission of
W.Bro. Jim Whitehead
Provincial Grand Masters
© Copyright 2008: Provincial Grand Lodge of Cambridge
Created and maintained by: Roger Outram
With Sir Henry Thirkill we come very firmly into the realm of contemporary affairs with Freemasonry in the Province. There are still many who remember him well and with affection. 'Thirks' was the great man of my early years in the Craft. I met him, but cannot say I knew him, yet he greeted me by name when I was but Senior Deacon in INUL. This was a talent he shared with Rushmore and others, and it was one which made him in Public School circles, 'the best Tutor in either University' according to Sir Harry Godwin. It was fortunate for Clare College that 'Thirks' abandoned his academic work with Rutherford in the Cavendish. His papers in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' give clear evidence of the future which might have been, had he not given up what would certainly have been a distinguished Scientific career for a rewarding life in the administrative and educational development of the College and University. A Bradford schoolboy, Henry Thirkill came up to read Natural Sciences at Clare and achieved 1st Class honours, becoming a fellow of the College in 1910 and a University Demonstrator in Experimental Physics in 1912, in which year he had begun his Masonic career by Initiation in INUL
at their April meeting. He was Inner Guard of INUL and a Provincial Grand Steward
when the 1914 war came.
