Meet the new senior officers of the Province

Howard Jones – Deputy Provincial Grand Master

Born in Liverpool on 28 January 1941 Howard attended Booker Avenue Primary School

and then The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, whose old boys are known as Liobians. From the age of nine he was a chorister at Liverpool Cathedral for nearly seven years until his voice broke. He also enjoyed sport and played football and cricket for the school teams.

Howard Jones.

On leaving school at the age of 16 he started work in an insurance company until moving to Midland Bank later to be known as HSBC. He progressed through various positions within the bank until his retirement in 1991 when he was Area Operations Manager for substantial parts of Lancashire and Cheshire. He was then able to use his experience in a solicitors practice in Kirkham and St. Annes as a part time practice manager for five years.

He was the secretary for the Liobians football and cricket teams for a number of years and he is a life-long supporter of Liverpool Football Club despite his father and brother supporting Everton!

Howard married his wife Patricia in 1967 and they now live in Longridge, Preston. They have two children, Kevin and Lindsey. Kevin lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Penny and daughter Olivia who will be going to university in September. Lindsey lives in Ribchester and is married to Gary. They have three children; Matthew 13, Joseph 11, and seven year old Phoebe.

Since retiring Howard and Pat have been very busy. Howard has been a church warden at St Bartholomew’s, Chipping for six years and looked after the Gift Aid for the church for more than 10 years. He also became both an umpire and secretary for Chipping Cricket Club. Pat has become a successful novelist specialising in books for younger readers since her retirement as Head of Infants at the largest primary school in Preston. Pat say’s: “Howard has been a great support as he helps with the typing and editing, making sure my work has a professional look prior to sending it to my publisher.” He also supports her at the many book signing events when she promotes her work.

They both enjoy travel, music, walking, skiing (although they say they both feel a bit creaky for this now!), reading and enjoying time with their grandchildren. Meeting up with friends and family for meals out and trips to the theatre are also pleasurable events. They try to spend time in France, especially near Bordeaux so they have plenty of opportunity to sample the wines!  

Pictured from left to right at last years annual cabaret and dinner, are: Joan Skidmore, Roy Skidmore, Pat Jones and Howard Jones.

Howard was initiated into Freemasonry in October 1972 into King’s Lodge No 3101 and he was WM in 1983 and 1995, he was also WM of Lodge Of Peace And Unity No 314 in 2008. He is also a member of Lathom Lodge No 2229 and currently one of the lodge stewards.

He received his first appointment in Provincial Grand Lodge in 1991 as PrGSuptWks, and  in 1996 he was promoted to Provincial Junior Grand Warden. In 2000 he was appointed to Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies and in 2008 he was invested as Assistant Provincial Grand Master with responsibility for the Bootle, Garston and Gladstone Groups. In 2009 he was promoted to the rank of Past Senior Grand Deacon.

He was exalted into King’s Chapter No 3101 on the 12 October 1981, became first principal of Chapter of Perseverance No 155 in 1999 and of Vale Chapter No 5256 in 2004. He is currently a member of Holy Royal Architect Chapter No 314. He was appointed PPrGSN in 2006 and was appointed to Grand Chapter as PGStdB in 2011. In addition he is a member of a two other Masonic Orders.

Howard became Honorary Secretary of the West Lancashire Masonic Charities Fund in 1997 and was a member of the working party that managed the amalgamation of the seven charities in the Province. He has been a trustee of the West Lancashire Freemasons’ Charity since it was formed in 2008 and is now the chairman of the board of trustees. A post he will have to relinquish following his appointment as Deputy Provincial Grand Master.

Howard said on his appointment to Deputy Provincial Grand Master: “It is obviously a great, though unexpected honour to be Deputy Provincial Grand Master of this great Province. However, I am saddened by the circumstances that made this change necessary. I am conscious of following in some very august footsteps and I will endeavour to maintain the high standards they have set. It is over 15 years since I was a Warden of the Province and I look forward to re-visiting those parts of it which I visited then and particularly to visiting those parts which I missed all those years ago.”

Roy Skidmore - Assistant Provincial Grand Master

Roy with his two Labradors.

Roy was born in Harrogate on 15 November 1944 at his grandparent’s home. He was educated at Harrogate Grammar School and later in his 20’s he obtained a BA with the Open University.

On leaving school at the age of 16 Roy joined the Air Ministry and later moved to St Annes with his parents following his father’s career move, working in the Premium Bond Office before joining the team planning the creation of National Giro in London. 

This was followed by work in Bootle, London and then Hove following the acquisition of the then Girobank by Alliance and Leicester. Various responsibilities included training, accounts management, systems analysis, programming, forward planning, sales and marketing. He programmed what, at the time, was Europe’s largest financial model and by combining his marketing and computing knowledge set up a computerised marketing system and finally had responsibility for the bank’s data based marketing and analysis. Roy spoke at several international marketing conferences, regrettably all in London.

Roy was a director of the staff pension scheme from 1989 to 1995 and a member of its investment committee.

There then followed a career change to take up salaried positions in a friendly society, and various directorships.

Roy had been on the management committee of a London, and later Crawley based, friendly society since 1974 acting on a voluntary and later salaried basis. In 1982 he became a trustee director, chairman of the trustee company from 1989 and company chairman from 1992. He was also the chairman of its staff pension scheme. During this period he had responsibility, through investment managers, for investing various funds ranging from £6,000,000 to £150,000,000. The organisation employed around 80 full time staff and 1,200 volunteers.

He was a director and company secretary of two London based marketing analysis companies. His involvement with friendly societies led to his membership of the board of the National Conference of Friendly Societies in 1986, he later became its president.  He was the first president of the Association of Friendly Societies representing the interests of around 8,000,000 investors serving on its parliamentary and policy committee and chairing its public relations and training and development committees.

Roy married Joan in 1970 and they now live in Southport. They have two children, their son Russell is a member of Bootle Pilgrim Lodge and Bootle Chapter No1473. Their daughter Elyse is married and works in Bristol as a project manager.

Roy was initiated into Freemasonry in May 1992 into Bootle Lodge No 1473 and he was WM in 2000 he was also Master of Pilgrim Lodge No 6207 in 2009 when, during his year in office both lodges merged forming Bootle Pilgrim Lodge No 1473.

He was appointed as Provincial Junior Grand Warden in 2004. He was appointed to Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies in April 2008. Roy was promoted to Assistant Provincial Grand Master with responsibility for the Bootle, Garston and Gladstone Groups, following the appointment of Howard Jones to Deputy Provincial Grand Master. 

He was exalted into Bootle Chapter   No 1473 on the 15 March 1996 and was first principal in 2006. He enjoys his Masonry in several other degrees and also holds Grand Rank in another order.

He has edited the ‘Bootle Bulletin’ magazine for several years.

Roy joined the team at the West Lancashire Masonic Charities Fund in 2004 as assistant secretary later becoming joint secretary alongside Howard Jones.  In 2008 Roy became the Chief Executive of the West Lancashire Freemasons’ Charity when the seven Provincial charities serving Craft and Royal Arch merged.

Although recently there has been little time to enjoy activities outside Masonry, Roy has an interest in target shooting, having at one time represented Lancashire. He has an interest in computing having assembled his own computers for 25 years. He is an occasional player in a rock band with fellow Masons, and is a Freeman of the City of London. 

His wife Joan, a keen genealogist, has traced his family history on his mother’s side back to the Norman Conquest and later The First Crusade in which a direct ancestor Adam d’Yrton played a memorable part; there are also family connections with Owen Glendower and Fletcher Christian. His father’s side appropriately revealed several generations of stonemasons one of whom may have worked on St Paul’s Cathedral. Spare moments are taken up restraining two boisterous Labradors.