FIFTY-YEAR TERM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20628, 2 December 1941, Page 4

FIFTY-YEAR TERM

LODGE SECRETARY MR. AMBRIDGE HONOURED ■ WONDERFUL RECORD A great record of friendly society service was honoured last night, when a special presentation of a jewel was made to Mr. C. H. Ambridge, who has been, secretary of the Manchester Unity Oddfellows’ Loyal Gisborne Lodge. 6087. for 50 years. The presentation was made by the Auckland district grand master of the order, Mr. E. T. Stanley, Matamata, at a dinner held in the Masonic Hall last night to celebrate the lodge’s sixtyseventh anniversary of its foundation. Mr. Stanley said he. had been entrusted by the district management committee to make a presentation of a jewel to mark the occasion. Reviewing Mr. Ambridge’s service to Oddfellowship, Mr. Stanley said Mr. Ambridge joined a juvenile lodge when 10 years old in England, and when he came of age he was accepted in an adult lodge. On coming to New Zealand he settled in Gisborne and joined the Loyal Gisborne Lodge in 1886, taking office the same year and going on to create the wonderful record of never having been out of office in the whole of the 55 years during which he was a member. After passing through the officers’ chairs, he was appointed treasurer until 1892, and has worn the secretary’s collar ever since then.

There was no better lodge secretary in the Dominion, Mr. Stanley said, when referring to the high esteem

with which Mr. Ambridge was held in the Auckland district, while he was also well known in many parts of the Dominion. He was district grand master in 1916, a period when the order faced many of the same difficulties it was up against to-day. A son made the supreme sacrifice during the war, but he carried on with his job. Mr. Ambridge was also a director of the order in New Zealand, and was in line for the highest office when he felt the necessity of resigning because of illness in the family.

The deputy district grand master, Mr. F. W. Newton, Howick, said the order was proud of Mr. Ambridge as a man who stood up for his convictions.

Mr. Ambridge, in reply, reviewed the progress of the Gisborne lodge, and said that there was only one survivor of 11 members who participated in the first surplus fund created by a change in policy in 1887. This member was Mr. John Mogridge, "P.G., now living in Marton. Mr. Ambridge added that the friends he had made in the order meant more to him than wealth.