Temple Lodge No. 33, A.F. & A.M., has a long, honourable and influential history in Duncan and the surrounding Cowichan Valley. Many members have been prominent in local business and there are several well known buildings in downtown Duncan built originally as the business premises of Temple Lodge. No.33 members.
Other members have been active in local politics. It can be safely said that members of Temple Lodge, No. 33 were instrumental in getting the City of Duncan incorporated in 1912. Eight members of Temple Lodge (and a total of ten Freemasons) have served as Mayor of Duncan. Four of our members have served as Reeve (Mayor) of the District of North Cowichan. Other members have served on the City of Duncan municipal council and District of North Cowichan municipal and district councils. Four Temple Lodge, No.33 members have served in the Provincial Legislature. One of our members served as a Member of Parliament.
Temple Lodge, No.33 members have served in law enforcement and in Canada’s military. Four of our members died in Canada’s military service during World War 1.
For those interested in local history and how Freemasons have figured in local history, we have included pages on, and links to, the following topics:
- the formation of Temple Lodge in 1899 by 14 local Freemasons;
- the building of the Temple Lodge Masonic Temple in 1912;
- local buildings built, or for, Lodge members or in some way connected to Lodge members;
- the Incorporation of the City of Duncan;
For historians, geneologists and other researchers we have included the following links:
Temple Lodge, No. 33 Historic Membership Lists from 1899 – 1965
- Temple Lodge, No.33, Historic Membership Lists – 1899 to 1909;
- Temple Lodge, No.33, Historic Membership Lists – 1910 to 1919;
- Temple Lodge, No.33, Historic Membership Lists – 1920 to 1929;
- Temple Lodge, No.33, Historic Membership Lists – 1930 to 1939;
- Temple Lodge, No.33, Historic Membership Lists – 1940 to 1949;
- Temple Lodge, No.33, Historic Membership Lists – 1950 to 1959;
- Temple Lodge, No.33, Historic Membership Lists – 1960 to 1969;
To avoid any potential conflicts with current privacy legislation we are presently maintaining a fifty year time gap in the Historic Membership List information we put online. We will add the 1966 list in 2016, and so on. Please note that this is an on going project and we will add more information as time permits.
We have also added a complete list of Temple Lodge, No.33 Principal Officers from 1899 to the Present Day.
Some More Historical Research Resources
For historians and other researchers, we have added the following pages to this site:
- Vancouver Island Cemeteries – Masonic Interments – please note that this link is to our previous webpage design. We will update this Vancouver Island Cemeteries page to our new web page layout as time permits.
- Deceased Brethren – only includes those names we have included on the new site so far. For more names of Deceased Brethren, please see our old web page on Deceased Brethren. We will keep the previous Deceased Brethren page online until we have fully updated the new site design.
- Vancouver Island Masonic History Project – an ongoing project by Temple Lodge, No. 33 to document the rich heritage left by Freemasons on Vancouver Island. Please note that the link is to our previous webpage design. We will update the Vancouver Island Masonic History pages to our new design over time.
For those interested in additional research on Freemasonry and Masonic history, the Grand Lodge of B.C. & Yukon website has an excellent Introduction To Freemasonry as well as sections on Masonic History in B.C. and Masonic History in general.
For those interested in further research on local history, we have included a list of recommended books by local authors. We also recommend the Cowichan Valley Museum, the Cowichan Valley Archives (located in Duncan City Hall) and the Cowichan Historical Society.
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