The 6Th Duke of Athole: Chieftain, Landlord, Patriot and Mason Member No
The 6th Duke of Athole: Chieftain, Landlord, Patriot and Mason Member No. 1 on the roll of our Lodge is Bro. George Augustus Frederick John Murray, 6th Duke of Athole and Grand Master Mason of Scotland. That this Lodge is called The Athole Lodge is no coincidence. The founding fathers, or rather, brothers, of the Lodge were Bro. Dr. Donald Patrick Stewart and Bro. Duncan Walker, both of whom were Perthshire men. They had been at the centre of a dispute within the Kirkintilloch Lodge St John Kilwinning No. 28 and had decided that the best way to restore Masonic harmony to Kirkintilloch was to establish a new Lodge. Dr Stewart was known to the 6th Duke of Athole and, with his assistance, the Lodge was quickly established. There were no sponsor Lodges. The Grand Master Mason’s support was sufficient and he would have been gratified by the strong Athole identity that the new Lodge was to assume. George Augustus Frederick John Murray was born on 20 September 1814 in Great Cumberland Place, London. His father was James Murray, 1st Baron Glenlyon, brother of the 5th Duke of Atholl, and his wife, Lady Emily Frances Percy. On his father’s death in 1837, George Murray became 2nd Baron Glenlyon. In 1839, he married Anne Home- Drummond of Blair Drummond, near Stirling In 1846, John Murray, the 5th Duke, died at the age of 68. He had been declared insane in 1798, at the age of 20, and lived in seclusion for the rest of his life. George Murray, Lord Glenlyon, succeeded him as 6th Duke, being the nearest male relative.
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