‘Royal Mint honors famous Freemasons’

     

Among the coins being introduced by the United Kingdom’s Royal Mint in 2021 are two that honor Scottish historical greats who were Freemasons.

One is a £2 denomination honoring Sir Walter Scott; the other, a 50 pence piece, memorializes the 75th anniversary of the death of John Logie Baird.

Scott (1771-1832) is a colossus of Scottish culture, having authored historical novels so memorable they’re probably being banned somewhere right now as you read this. You neo-Templars out there should be familiar with Ivanhoe at least.

According to this AQC paper from 1907 by Bro. Adam Muir Mackay, a Past Master of Lodge St. David 36 in Edinburgh, Scott was made a Mason in 1801 in St. David. He was initiated, passed, and raised during an emergent on March 2, which also happened to have been the 63rd anniversary of the lodge’s constitution by the grand master. Scott’s father was at labor there too.

The coin commemorates the sestercentennial anniversary of Scott’s birth.

John Logie Baird (1888-1946) pioneered television technology. According to the BBC:

On 26 January 1926 he gave the world’s first demonstration of true television before 50 scientists in an attic room in central London. In 1927, his television was demonstrated over 438 miles of telephone line between London and Glasgow, and he formed the Baird Television Development Company. (BTDC). In 1928, the BTDC achieved the first transatlantic television transmission between London and New York and the first transmission to a ship in mid-Atlantic. He also gave the first demonstration of both colour and stereoscopic television.

The lodge affiliation of Bro. Baird eludes me, but I’ll update this edition of The Magpie Mason upon finding that datum.

UPDATE—MARCH 8, 2021: A friend at the House of the Temple reminds me that I haven’t provided Baird’s lodge affiliation. I have not tracked down that info yet. Inquiries to both UGLE and Scotland have gone unrequited. Not giving up though.