View source for Dr. Conan Doyle, honorary member of St. Mary's Chapel Lodge of Freemason


This short article published in [[The Leeds Mercury]] on 26 march 1901 announced the admission of [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] as an honorary member of St. Mary's Chapel Lodge of Freemasons, at Edinburgh.

See also [[Freemasonry|Arthur Conan Doyle and Freemasonry]].


== Article ==
[[File:the-leeds-mercury-1901-03-26-p4-freemasonry.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[The Leeds Mercury]] (26 march 1901, p. 4)]]

Freemasonry is sometimes laughed at by the uninitiated, but Dr. Conan Doyle, on being admitted an honorary member of St. Mary's Chapel Lodge of Freemasons, at Edinburgh, in recognition of his literary merits, "and particularly for his services as a medical man among our soldiers in South Africa," told the brethren he believed that many of the British troops, when taken prisoners the Boers, found personal benefit from the fact that they were Masons. The ranks of the Boers, Dr. Conan Doyle declared, were filled with Masons, who also found the mystic brotherhood an advantage when they were taken captive by the British. Although the Pope and Dr. Dowie, of Chicago, agree in anathematising Freemasonry, it is evident, from what Dr. Conan Doyle says, that the signs and password of the order are very useful when one falls into the hands of the enemies of one's country.


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