Naming of HRC

The following article is presented with the compliments of the
HOLDEN RESEARCH CIRCLE.

The article may be freely used for masonic purposes only.

For all other purposes the approval of the
Circle President, W Bro Graeme Love
must be obtained.

M.W. BRO. DR. A. T. HOLDEN, P.G.M

after whom our Circle through Holden Lodge No.521, UGLV
derived its name.

The ensuing talk was delivered by Wor. Bro. W. E. Jennings, P.G.Chaplain
at the Holden Research Circle in 1948.

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Dr. Albert Thomas Holden was born on 2lst August, 1866, and died on his birthday, at the age of 69 (21st August 1939).

When the news of his death became known, one of the most concise and eloquent tributes to him of which we have record appeared in the "Iowa Grand Lodge Bulletin." These were the words:

"Our friend is dead. A great loneliness is upon us. He has gone, leaving the working tools to other hands, to assume his station in the Celestial Lodge, where the Supreme Architect of the Universe forever reigns, and forever presides. He has left his mark upon many a stone in the Temple of Truth, and future generations of Masons will read and understand."

These words may appropriately be the beginning of a discourse on this great man, whose name has been enshrined in the memory of past generations of Freemasons-a name that has been perpetuated in a Lodge that bears his name, Holden Lodge, 521, of which this Research Circle is a worthy offspring.

It was a splendid thought, conceived in the mind of Wor. Bro. T. O. Muggridge, the President of the Holden Research Circle, that an evening could well be devoted to a lecture on this outstanding Freemason and Churchman. This for two reasons: One, that there are forces in the passage of time that tend to bring about erasion and oblivion. Workmen one day in London were to be observed engaged upon a very conspicuous monument, deepening the inscriptive letters which told a heroic story. The corrosives of time had been at work upon the once deep impressions, and they were gradually being effaced. Years have passed since the eloquent tongue of Dr. Holden was silenced, and the hand of the master craftsman stilled. When Edmund Burke, the great English statesman, died in 1797, Canning wrote: "There is but one event, but it is an event of the world-Burke is dead." I can well remember being one who attended a memorial service in Wesley Church, Melbourne, recalling to myself these words, and saying: "There is but one event-A. T. Holden is dead." It will be for our eternal good for those of us who remember him to exercise the power of recall.

Yet again, there are many among us, younger members, who bear the name, and yet never saw the form of their illustrious founder. For them it may be an enlightening experience to learn something of a leader, a pattern, a creator, who continued to do and attain, and left us an example that we can endeavour, however imperfectly, to follow. So I humbly accept this task, all too conscious that it is a topic to which we shall do but scant justice.

Renowned, as he was, as Churchman, Freemason, soldier and man, Dr. Holden's greatness is partly explained-yet only partly explained-by his ancestry. For the most part the hiding of his power are wrapped in clouds and mystery. Through a long line of noble forefathers, the Great Architect of the Universe had planned Albert Thomas Holden to be a sturdy pillar in His Holy Temple. For in the noblest sense this patrician gentleman represents bleeding, high, pure and long. It was said of William Ewart Gladstone, who was born in 1809, that away back in 1620 here was a Gladstone who was a God-fearing and law-loving man, famed for his goodly stature. This man had a son who climbed upon his father's shoulders, and so on, until at last upon the shoulders of Sir John Gladstone there climbed the great William Ewart, whose forehead struck against the stars. In the same way Nature and Providence began to make ready for our great man years before the child was born. The beginning came when, in the year 1830, in the month of September, there arrived from England one who was known in those days as a Red Coat-Elijah Holden, soldier, and grandfather of the subject of this lecture. That was the year of the accession of William IV. to the throne of England, and the time when Sturt was undertaking his great journeys, which have been acclaimed as the most important pieces of inland exploration in Australian history. Soon after his arrival, Elijah Holden received his discharge from the army, and also a grant of land near Sydney. From this paternal grandfather no doubt came the inheritance of those soldierly qualities and military bearing for which Dr. Holden was famed.

Business acumen and commercial enterprise were also among the factors which made their contribution from a noble ancestry. To Elijah Elolden was born a son in the year 1837. He was named Thomas, and, finding his way later to Geelong, in Victoria, founded the firm of Thomas Holden and Son, hay and corn merchants, and fodder and wheat exporters. A quiet, strong man, renowned for his consistent probity of character, he is still remembered by older generations as a citizen highly respected. Sometimes it has been glibly asserted that one of the tragedies of life is contained in the fact that a man cannot choose his own parents. Had it been possible for the subject of this lecture to have made his own choice, he could not by any chance have selected for his parents a better combination than destiny intended. Thomas Holden married Mary Hague on 18th April, 1865. She also came from a family of outstanding business ability, for she was a daughter of Seth Hague, who arrived in Melbourne from Manchester in 1841, and established himself as a successful merchant in the capital city. Mrs. Thomas Holden was one of the strongest of women physically, and in mind and character. Hers was the blending of strength and gentleness, which qualified her to be the mother of heroes. It was not to be wondered at that there should have proceeded from this home at Drumcondra a family of notable sons and daughters. Albert Thomas was the eldest. George F., following for a time a line of business similar to that of his father, entered the Victorian State Parliament, afterwards became Chairman of the Geelong Harbour Trust, and for many years was Chairman of the Melbourne Harbour Trust, a position of administration which until the time of his death he administered with distinction. Percy became head of the Customs Department in Geelong. May married Dr. Samuel Hoban, of fame at the Sydney Central Mission and at Wesley Church, Melbourne -a man with a voice like a bell, and who was for years one of the most distinguished preachers of the Methodist Church, and a Freemason. Gertrude, who married John Thomas, of Geelong, died in early middle life. Arthur, a successful business man, spent his retirement at a palatial home nestling among the trees at Lakes Entrance.

Albert Thomas, as I have said, was the eldest of the family. He was born on 21st August in Gheringhap Street Geelong. Seldom has a son combined in himself so many of the characteristics of his forbears. He had the martial bearing of his grandfather; the quiet wisdom of his father, who knew when to speak and when to keep silent; but, above all, perhaps, he had the characteristics of his mother, whose hereditary gifts, coupled with a wise training, gave him a greater legacy than silver or gold. This young son entered the Geelong College on a career of education, and in the year 1882 he matriculated. He was articled to a solicitor in Geelong, but as there was no vacancy at the time, he was compelled to undergo a period of waiting. And so, in that time of waiting in Dr. Holden's life, he was destined to experience what man may calculate as a trivial thing, but was really the guidance of a "heart that planned." He walked into the Geelong Public Library, and, turning over the papers, this young lad of sixteen years, with ambitions for law, saw an advertisement seeking for a teacher at the Prospect House Academy, at Kyneton, conducted by Rev. G. I. Richmond, a minister of the Independent Church. "What virtue there is in if," said Touchstone, in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream"! "If Dante had met Beatrice," said Carlyle, "Florence may have had another prosperous Lord Mayor, but the world would have lost the 'Divine Comedy.' " If this young lad had not entered the Geelong Public Library the Australian judicature may have had another Judge, or most likely a Chief Justice; but the Church would have lost one of its noblest Australian sons.

Consultation with his parents left him a free hand, and he applied, was accepted, and his first break from home came. The tenderness of his heart, and the homesickness that enveloped him at that period are revealed in a letter he wrote to his mother: "This is a nice place, but not as nice as Geelong. I have a nice home, but not as nice as ours." These are the yearnings of the great human boy that he was.

It was on April 2nd, 1883, that he went to Kyneton to become a teacher. There he came under the influence of a saintly minister, the Rev. Charles Lancaster, of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, who set his feet towards the pulpit, for, even at that early age, not more than a boy, he became a lay preacher in the Kyneton Circuit. This was in 1884. He remained at the Prospect House Academy until the Christmas of 1884, when he severed his connection with the school and this rural township; and when the University year began in 1885, he entered Ormond College to embark on studies for a degree, still having it in his intention to study for law. His studies at Ormond were carried on with the thoroughness that marked his life throughout, and in 1888 he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Rowing and football were his principal sports, and he had the distinction of being in the crew at Ormond - the first eight-oar boat race of the University. Norman Morrison, afterwards to become famous as "Morrison of China," was one of the same crew.

In the year 1888, the same year as he had conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he made the great choice of his life, and decided to enter the ministry of the Methodist Church. His first appointment was in the Hawthorn Circuit. This was at the time when the Outer Circle railway was under construction, and he ministered to the men gathered in considerable numbers in the construction camp. This was a work after his own heart, and there he showed that powerful appeal which his manly personality made to men right throughout his career. He preached and organised among them, giving to them of his best, but also receiving incalculable gifts of friendship, which must have developed the foundation upon which was laid the superstructure of his life, for he that is "faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." There were many amongst the older men of the Methodist Church who had the vision to see in this young minister the potentialities which were afterwards to unfold into one of the most vivid personalities known in Australia. Foremost of these was the Rev. Edmund S. Bickford, of the same line as Bickford, the Melbourne League footballer. Mr. Bickford chose A. T. Holden as a travelling companion, and together they toured a great part of the world, notably in Palestine, England, and the Continent. Travel broadens the outlook, and this was a useful preparation for the mind of one who was afterwards to become a world-figure. The Methodist Church, in its discipline, has a way of seeing that its young men shall taste of difficulty. It may have seemed to the shortsighted a waste of good material that a man of the calibre of this young man should be banished to the wilds of Omeo and Glen Wills. But it was done. Adaptability was not the least of his qualities, and perhaps he was never more significant than when he, a tall, athletic figure, stood amongst the miners, preaching to them in the bar of a hotel among these rugged mountains.

There is a humorous story, preserved, as far as I know, only in the files of an Omeo newspaper. Maybe I cannot do better than quote the paragraph in full:- "Rev. A. T. Holden, B.A., of the Omeo Home Mission Station, in trying to cross the Crooked River after a flood, went into the water up to his waist. However, he fulfilled his appointment. On the journey home he attempted to recross at the same place, but the horse's feet would not take on the opposite bank, and this time Mr. Holden was drenched from head to foot. He ultimately reached a house not far distant, occupied by a Salvation Army officer, who lent him some clothes. Mr. Holden presented a captivating appearance, in moleskins reaching just a little below the knees, and a flaring red jacket emblazoned with the words, 'Salvation Army."' It takes some stretch of imagination to picture this dignified figure appearing in all the glory of a Salvation Army uniform. He became known for the expert horseman that he was. History has it that there was one upstanding horse that he only could ride. A. T. Holden used to mount it by the device used by riders of taking a firm hold of the animal's ear, and then hurling himself into the saddle.

When he returned from England he was married in Omeo in 1893. Mrs. Holden was regarded as the best horsewoman in the countryside. Three years were spent at Port Cygnet, in Tasmania. Then came an appointment that must be underlined, for it was while he was in Dunkeld, from 1896 to 1899, that Dr. Holden was initiated into Freemasonry. Hawthorn again and St. Kilda, were the last appointments he served as a circuit minister. Then began the great work of his life as a Churchman. Now appears in perspective the meaning of his preparatory experience at Omeo and Dunkeld. Rev. E. S. Bickford, himself the General Secretary of Home Missions, marked A. T. Holden as his successor, and in the year 1904 persuaded Conference to appoint him as his assistant, intending that he should succeed him in this important post. There were but four months of happy association, when Mr. Bickford died. Only those who have any experience of the ramifications of this great department of Church activity will realise what it meant for a young man to be thrown into the responsibility of such a tremendous administration. To A. T. Holden it was a challenge to resourcefulness, and he strode off, carrying the weight of this organisation upon his colossal shoulder.

Directness, command, initiative, understanding were all required in the development of the faraway centres. He knew his men, and controlled them, as his mother before him had carried on the affairs of the home, with strength and tenderness. One example of his directness may be given. In 1911 he paid a flying visit to Murrayville, the last part of which journey of 70 miles was covered by buggy and pair. When he returned, this was the letter he sent to a young man, Mr. O. J. Boyle: "We are wanting a special man whom we can trust to found a new station in the North-West Mallee, with Murrayville as headquarters. The choice has fallen on you. We want you to be prepared to commence work there on the first Sunday in December. It will take you two or three days to get there, and you will need two or three days to look around to get a congregation together. If you have a bicycle you will find it very handy in your work." The Home Mission Society he laid down was vastly different in scope from what it was when he received his commission. One of the most important ventures was the founding of a College for the training of Home Missionaries, which meant that he moved from Belmont Avenue to "Otira," in Walpole Street, Kew. One of his greatest monuments, however, is the institution of the far-flung Methodist Inland Mission, stretching over the confines of the Australian continent. This was Dr. Holden's most vivid dream, and in 1926 it was consummated. This gigantic scheme he continued to administer until his death.

The soldierly qualities of Dr. Holden found scope for their fulfillment in two wars. In 1900 he embarked on 1st May with the Fourth Contingent (The Imperial Bushmen) for Beira, in Portuguese South Africa, as Chaplain. He was the only Victorian Chaplain to serve with the troops in South Africa, and was awarded the Queen's and the King's Medals. In the First World War he held the position of Senior Chaplain from 1916-l919, with frequent visits to England and the war areas. He was appointed Chaplain-General in 1913, and held that office at the time of his death. For his great services in this realm, His Majesty King George V. was pleased to confer upon him the Order of Commander of the British Empire. He also held the Victorian Decoration for long service as a Chaplain.

It seems a far cry from that bar-room in Glen Wills to the highest position that could be conferred upon him by the Methodist Church of Australasia. No matter what course he was destined to pursue, he would have been amongst the greatest of the great in Australia. Had he entered another Church - say, the Church of England - he would eventually have been an Archbishop. Had he chosen politics for a career, he would have been a real statesman, and would have climbed to the position of Prime Minister. Always loyal to the Church of his father and mother, he was true to the principles imbibed in that little church in Ashby, Geelong. The Methodist Church called him to the chair of the President of the Victoria and Tasmania Conference in 1915. In 1929 he was elected Secretary-General, and in 1932 he became President-General, which means that he was head of the Methodist Church in Australasia. In 1935 the University of Canada honored itself by honoring this great man with the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

And now, having spoken of him as a Churchman and a soldier, it remains for us to recall his career as a Freemason. It is not too much to say that there have been few, if any, in the Southern Hemisphere who achieved such a remarkable distinction in the world of Freemasonry. His Masonic career, as I have hinted, began when he was exercising a ministry in the Dunkeld and Penshurst Circuit. He was initiated in the Grange Lodge, No. 45, in Hamilton, Victoria, in 1898. He used to be fond of quoting the words of George Eliot: "From the solitary place the springs come to drive the mill-wheels of the world." At the Installation and Semi-Jubilee Celebrations of Grand Lodge in 1914, Most Worshipful Brother A. T. Holden, I.P.G.M., was proposing the toast of the Most Worshipful Grand Master, the Hon. Charles Carty Salmon. He referred to the fact that so many of the Grand Masters had come into the light, not through the large Lodges in the metropolitan area, but through the smaller Lodges throughout the territory. "Most Worshipful Brother Sir Alexander Peacock came into Freemasonry in Creswick. Most Worshipful Brother Hon. Charles Carty Salmon saw Masonic light first in the Talbot Lodge. And I had the privilege of entering Freemasonry through the Grange Lodge in Hamilton." He never forgot his Mother Lodge.

The exigencies of a Methodist circuit minister, to which he was joined in those days, required that a man be itinerant, and Dr. Holden came to the city from Dunkeld and Penshurst. He joined Camberwell Lodge, No. 159, in the year 1899. Of this Lodge he was installed as Worshipful Master in 1906. A year later than his entry into the Camberwell Lodge he joined Yarra Yarra, No. 11. The chair of this Lodge was open to him at the same time as Camberwell, but the die was cast in favour of Camberwell. In 1911 he joined (Victorian) Lodge of Research, No. 218, and was Worshipful Master of that Lodge in 1913. His many visits to England made Most Worshipful Bro. Holden a figure almost as familiar there as he was in Australia. He joined the First Artificer, No. 3774, England, in 1917, and joined Epworth, No. 3789, England, in 1918. He was a foundation member of Overseas Lodge, No. 4030, in 1920. Other Victorian Lodges with which he was honourably associated were Wesley Collegians, Army Lodge, and Epworth.

Dr. Holden became Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of Victoria in 1912, succeeding Most Worshipful Bro. Sir T. D. Gibson Carmichael. For two years he occupied this position with great distinction. His work, as always, an inspiration. Speaking to the toast of the Installing Masters on the occasion of the Semi-Jubilee, to which reference has already been made, the late Right Worshipful Bro. Hon. W. A. Watt, peerless orator, said: "I had the privilege last night for the first time of witnessing Most Worshipful Bro. Holden do the principal work as Installing Master, and it is no exaggeration to say that the recollection of the magnificent way in which that work was performed will remain with me as long as Freemasonry will last in my life. I am aware of the amount of labour that Most Worshipful Bro. Holden has done during his connection with the Craft; but if he had done nothing further than to impress upon that magnificent assemblage the way in which such an important charge as that he had in hand should be delivered, it would remain as an enduring testimony of his work in Freemasonry." In the Mark Lodge Dr. Holden's service was little behind that in the Craft. He was "advanced" in the Prince of Wales Lodge, No. 8, in 1907, but resigned in 1908. In that year he joined Hawthorn Mark Lodge, No. 6, and became Worshipful Master in 1910, a position he filled for two successive years. He was a foundation member of the Coulson Commemoration Mark Lodge, No. 100, which was consecrated in 1928. In the United Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Victoria he was Grand Chaplain for 12 years, from 1908 to 1919. He became Deputy Grand Master, and the rank of Past Grand Master was conferred upon him in May, 1935 - the year of his death. Most Worshipful Bro. Holden consecrated no fewer than 24 of our Victorian Mark Lodges. His career in the Royal Ark Mariners showed an association with Kilwinning, Malvern and Coulson Commemoration.

In the Royal Arch Chapter he was exalted in the Australasian Chapter, No. 1, in the year 1902. He became First Principal in 1912. He was foundation First Principal of Melbourne Chapter, No. 38, in 1921, and foundation First Principal of Public Schools Chapter, No. 66, in 1926. In the Supreme Grand Chapter of Victoria he was First Grand Principal for three years, from 1915 to 1917. He was also Past Grand Scribe Nehemiah of the English Grand Chapter in 1919. Prominent positions were also held by him in other important degrees. He was the Intendant General of the Knights of the Red Cross of Constantine. In the Knights Templar he was Very Eminent Provincial Prior, the head of the Order in Victoria. In the Royal and Select Masters he belonged to the Grand Conclave of England. He was Grand Inspector General of the 33rd Degree. In the Rose Croix Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite he was the Grand Inspector General for the District of Southern Victoria. In the Order of the Secret Monitor he first joined the Southern Cross Conclave at Geelong, and was a foundation member of the Melbourne Conclave, afterwards to reach the chair. These degrees he took, and, stout-hearted Freemason that he was, he carried them all with skill and ability, neglecting nothing. Such is a brief resume of Dr. Holden's Masonic activities. His last country visit was made with the Editor of the "Craftsman" to the Corangamite Lodge, where he presided over a team of returned soldiers who conducted the ceremony. At the festive board he related many experiences of humorous situations, in a great speech. It was a speech, however, that was given under difficulties, for the grip of a fell disease was already upon him, and he suffered intense pain. The end of this distinguished career came in the Epworth Hospital, and, though it was expected, nevertheless it came as a great shock to Freemasons throughout Victoria.

The funeral cortege was one of the longest ever seen in Melbourne, extending the whole length of Victoria Parade. As the procession passed near the Masonic Temple at Kew, not far from his home in Walpole Street, it was noticed that the flag was half-mast.

The lecture may well conclude by recalling the words of an eloquent tribute delivered by Most Worshipful Bro. W. Warren Kerr, after the Lambskin or White Apron had been deposited in the grave: -

"In the passing to the life beyond the grave of Most Worshipful Bro. the Rev. Dr. Albert Thomas Holden, the Methodist Church has lost an honoured and trusted leader, the State a distinguished and worthy citizen, and the Masonic fraternity an eminent and revered Freemason and a greatly loved friend and brother. In many a home throughout the length and breadth of Australia -and in-other lands, too-his vivid personality and helpful words will long be remembered with pleasure and thankfulness. Our departed Brother loved his many Masonic associations, and in the administrative, consultative, benevolent and educational activities of the Craft his authority, help and counsel were ever welcome, and were never sought in vain. He found in the teachings, ceremonial and atmosphere of the Masonic Lodge both relaxation and stimulus, as well as a fruitful opportunity for moral and spiritual leadership. He won the hearts of his Brethren by the nobility of his character, his sweet reasonableness, and by that unfailing patience, indomitable courage, and unshaken faith which marked the days of trial and loss and of pain. We thank God for so fine an example, so great a life. But no longer shall we think of him as limited-and fettered by the conditions of human existence, but as one liberated for higher service in that realm of peace where 'God shall wipe away all tears, where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, nor any more pain."

Such was a worthy tribute to a worthy man.

Brethren, it would be an unhappy consequence of our survey of this great man if it left us merely proud of the name we bear. By the same token, let us remember that this life is a challenge to you and me to practice the tenets and principles of our profession.

"Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time."