This object featured in the latest edition of the Knole News - the newsletter for Masons meeting at The Knole in Bournemouth, Dorset, where there is a splendid museum. Here follows the article about it.
Probably our most prized jewel is a Founders jewel from Hope Chapter No.2153 which meets at
Horndean, Hants and IOW. It belonged to Norman Finch VC. He won his decoration at the Battle of
Zeebrugge in 1918 which cost the lives of 188 men and 384 wounded. This action was so heroic
that the War Office decided to award a VC but were unable to select the actual recipient. Most
unusually, they decided to ask the survivors themselves to ballot and Norman Finch won by a large
majority for his action, when despite being seriously wounded himself, he continued to man the
surviving machine gun under enemy fire thus saving many lives until his gun was hit and put out of
action. He was further honoured by being invited to be a member of the burial party at the interment
of the Unknown Soldier at Westminster Abbey in 1919. This jewel was loaned to the Grand Lodge
Museum for inclusion in the exhibition “Most Glorious of them All” in January 2006 where it was one of very few genuine Masonic artefacts associated with a winner of the VC on display at the
Exhibition.
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