News

Hi everyone,

Apologies

I returned safe and sound but pretty tired at the beginning of September 2005 - is it that long ago!?

As you might imagine I returned to a proverbial mountain of mail and other enquiries and even six months later not all of it has been dealt with. Please accept my apologies if you are one of the 'victims!' I returned home with load of bits of paper some of which I occasionally still find between the pages of a book that some one was kind enough to give to me as a gift. I do hope that I shall not only answer all such enquiries sooner or later. If you are a 'victim' of my failure to answer, again my apologies.

New Grand Secretary

Soon after my return home on 3rd October to be exact, the new Grand Secretary, David M. Begg, C.A., commenced an 'overlap period' with the retiring Grand Secretary (C. Martin McGibbon) and so there were a number of adjustments to be made. Brother Begg officially took up his duties on 1st November.

The Rosslyn Hoax?

I had made the naive assumption that I would be able to work on the book: The Rosslyn Hoax? whilst on the ANZMRC tours but that proved to be impossible. On my return to Scotland I made a conscious decision to devote all my spare time to finishing the book and that meant, unfortunately, neglecting this web site completely. The book is now nearing completion and so I find a wee bitty spare time available - provided the publisher does not ask for any substantial re-writing!

For those who might be interested the book is expected to be published later this year. I have added a page: Rosslyn Hoax with a few, admittedly brief, details. To go to that page click here or on the previous links.

International Conference on the History of Freemasonry (ICHF)

Finally, another but most important event has take up a considerable amount of my time since September and that is my involvement in organising the first ever International Conference on the History of Freemasonry (ICHF) due to be held in May 2007. The venue is Freemasons' Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland (right). There is a web site dedicated to the conference where you can download the conference brochure and read more details. The cost is likely to be off putting to many Freemasons but it is important to bear in mind that this is an academic conference. I would love to see Australian and New Zealand contributions. To go to the conference web site click here or on the previous links.

Web site updates

Now that I am beginning to find a little spare time I shall now try to start to add more text and images from the tour to this site.

Other News

There are a number of other news items to follow later.

Kindest regards to you all.

Bob Cooper

3oth March 2006

Old News

As everyone cannot have failed to notice this web site has not been updated for some time but now it has - as from 16th August! Unfortunately, only a limited amount of material has been added as of that date but at least it is some progress.

Images for the month of June have now complete (20th to 30th) been uploaded - a period which covers lectures in South Africa, India and in Perth and Kalgoorlie (Australia.)

Images from the first couple of weeks in July have now been added. It is important to note that, so far, most of the images have not been captioned. This will be done in due course although is likely to take some time whilst my notes are consulted. Meantime any errors spotted, information (especially names and places) and other comments would be most welcome. Click on the 'contact' link or here to e-mail me.

Please note that although I have now returned home I have been confronted with a mountain of mail and other correspondence (both at home and in the office) and as this must take precedence I might not be able to reply, or use the information for some considerable time - but I would rather have now and use it later than not have it at all. Please do not be deterred from e-mailing me just because of my inability to reply immediately.