Province and the Order, with my reasons for submitting that person for such consideration. It is by no means a bygone conclusion that any of my submissions will achieve an appointment. Brethren, please do not think that Grand Rank in this Order is achieved by my patronage. It rests solely with the Grand Master and his executive to ‘give’ this reward. So please, when you see any Brother in this Order with either a Chain, or a large Apron, remember that they have been rewarded for Service to our Order. Our growth has been spectacular, both as an Order, and especially as a Province. There are certain key people who have been responsible within our current Court’s for this, and I would not dare to list names for fear of making an unintended slip, and missing someone, which would be both grievous to any individual, and perilous to my relationship with them! My grateful and heartfelt thanks to all those Brethren. Further to this subject, we, for those who did not know, consecrated our eighth Court in January of this year, at Liskard, The Court of St. German, number 97 on the role of Grand Court. I thank W.Bro. K. Barry Chalkley MBE for all his hard work in helping make this come to fruition. I was ably assisted, on the day, by a great Team of both active Provincial Officer’s and a few ‘acting’ volunteers, who did a fantastic job, and had a great time. The day was thoroughly enjoyable, oh, and we had some help from the Grand Master… he very kindly agreed to travel down and be the Consecrating Officer. On the subject of our Court’s, I still need your help. We now have eight Court’s within the Province, as you will see listed in the excellent summons prepared by our Deputy Provincial Grand Master, and the Provincial Grand Secretary. The help I need is that we have 2 Court’s to go to complete our Province. I have happily reported to you previously that we are working towards a Court at Plymouth, also the Provincial Executive have a potential location for the tenth Court. So please Brethren, if you are approached by any of the Provincial Officer’s to assist, I implore you that if you can, please, please give your assistance. We are fighting time, because so far, the Order has been consecrating approximately one Court per month, upto this point, and it does not appear to be slowing down. Our Most Worshipful Grand Master has been in post for nearly a year now, and has some very definite plans for the direction of the Order. One of those directions is Ritual. Now, it is a fact that there is a review group looking at our ritual, headed up by the Assistant Grand Master. BUT just because it is under review, does not mean it will change tomorrow. There is a lead time to all these things, and that timescale is not yet published. So I remind you that the facts are this; The ritual of the Order is published for its Members in books 1, 2, and 3. Dated August 2010 – this is the current ritual, and if you have an Office in a Court, or at any level, it is incumbent upon you to learn the ritual for that Office, to the best of your individual ability. Don’t worry about what may happen in the future, learn and apply the ritual for the Office that you hold. When you move onto the next one, take the approved ritual for that Office at the time you are appointed, and do the same, and so on, until an announcement is made, and a date for that change, if any. I appreciate that I am ‘preaching to the converted’ here, but as is said, “if the caps fits…” I shall be taking this strong ‘reminder’ to all of the Court’s in the Province that I visit, so shall V.W.Bro. Brian, W.Bro. Mervyn, and any other Provincial Grand Officer who attends a Court to represent me. To close, and I hear some sighs of relief, I must again reiterate my grateful thanks to all of you, the Provincial Officer’s, both active and acting, and the Provincial Executive, for being so generous with their time on your behalf. Please also pass on my thanks, and convey my message, to those Brethren that you know who could not be with us today. I will now give an advert for next year’s Provincial Assembly, please put this in your diary’s, it will be held at Perranporth, Cornwall, with the Court meeting of The Court of King Hywel No.69 on Saturday 16th May 2015. I am getting this date in your minds early, so as not to clash with other Order’s and other Masonic commitments, and to ensure a very good attendance from all our Court’s in Wessex. Before finishing, I must just re-iterate the very sad loss of all the Brethren of this Province since our last Assembly, especially W.Bro. William Robin Rouse. Bill was a quiet man, purposeful, direct and ‘straight as a dye’ to coin a phrase. He was the Founding Treasurer for three of our Court’s, and was a Member of the Order from the early days of the Province. I know he was heavily involved with many Order’s throughout Cornwall and Devon. He held respected ranks in all of them, and was always involved as either Treasurer or Secretary at Provincial level or its equivalent. Brother Roy was a new member of our Order, but we shall never know the achievements or contributions that he could have made to this Province. They have each ‘lived respected, and died regretted’. I have been lucky to have met both of them, and I know that this Province, and life in general is a poorer place for their passing. Brethren, I look forward to being with you at your Court’s, especially at each Individual Installation, whenever I can. I look forward to your company at whatever gathering of Athelstan, or any other Order we may be attending, and I look forward to your company after this Assembly. Thank you all for your kind attention, Yours sincerely and fraternally, Malcolm Malcolm J Burns GCSM Provincial Grand Master The Province of Wessex