On Wednesday, 4th February, Trinity Lodge received the Assistant Provincial Grand Master, WBro Wesley Marchant, accompanied by a provincial delegation. Once he was in the chair, he invited WBro Barry Heal to deliver a personal tribute to WBro Chris Bolton on his 50th Anniversary in Freemasonry. Barry noted that many knew Chris as an accomplished Freemason, then asked, “But what else has Chris done?” He added that Chris progressed from apprentice telecommunications engineer to head of marketing and, in his final year, served in Nigeria as a Deputy Project Manager for a team of 20 consultants working for the Military Government.

After retiring, Chris and his wife, Glenis, lived in Mallorca for 9 years, during which Chris founded 3 Craft Lodges and a Royal Arch Chapter. He was honoured with the Acting Grand Rank in both Craft and Chapter under the Spanish Constitution. They later returned to Glossop, though Chris has never been one to settle easily. Married for 65 years, Glenis often jokes that it would be pointless to throw Chris out—they wouldn’t notice he was gone. Their 1961 honeymoon set the tone. Chris promised Glenis a trip to the Netherlands, but he had forgotten to mention that he had been chosen by the British Race Walking Association to compete in Nijmegen. The event involved walking 35 miles a day for four days, requiring a 3:30 am wake-up each morning—hardly a typical honeymoon plan. Chris remained optimistic, claiming the second week would be more romantic, and they stayed with a friend in The Hague. However, they learned the friend had sent his children to their grandmother so Chris and Glenis could use their bedroom. It transpired, however, that the room had only bunk beds!

Outside work and Freemasonry, athletics have been Chris’s lifelong passion. He has devoted over seventy years to athletics as a competitor, coach and official. He is a Life Member and Past President of the Lancashire Race Walking Club, and one of the few admitted to the Centurions Club after walking 100 miles within 24 hours — only the 300th athlete since 1880. Even in retirement, his athletic standards remained formidable. In Mallorca, he continued running, completing the London Marathon in 3 hours 15 minutes— an impressive time for any athlete over 50. At 65, he was the fastest over-60 finisher in the Manchester Marathon, winning the veterans’ award. In 2002, at age 75, he completed seven ultramarathons in seven days, covering 300 kilometres from Schleswig in Germany to Viborg in Denmark. Two years later, at 77, he won the British Veterans Race Walking Championship, covering 5 kilometres in 35 minutes and 3 seconds. Through athletics, Chris has travelled to twenty-four countries across Europe, Asia and America as a competitor, team manager and official delegate. Barry ended his tribute to Chris, noting that “yes – he is still married.”

At this point, the APGM invited Chris to sit with him in the middle of the lodge to continue the celebration. Chris was initiated into Concordia Lodge No 4954 on 19th December 1975 in the province of West Lancashire, and later joined Audenshaw Lodge No 3471, where he served as WM in 1997 and 2001. Chris relocated to the Balearics, where he founded a lodge in Valencia and helped establish both Craft Lodges and Royal Arch Chapters at a time when Freemasonry was just beginning to be accepted in Spain. The work Chris undertook over the years was recognised with a Provincial appointment in 1994, followed by promotion to the rank of Past Provincial Grand Sword Bearer. In Royal Arch, Chris was awarded the rank of Past Provincial Grand Scribe Nehemiah and the Grand Rank of Past Assistant Grand Sojourner.

Chris is the first to acknowledge that the consistent support of his wife of 65 years, Glenis, made all he did for Freemasonry possible. As the APGM pointed out, this included starting and running the shop in the Audenshaw Masonic Hall for recycling Masonic regalia, which still enables the by-products of Masonic promotion to be recycled, thereby raising funds to support the hall’s operations. The APGM went on to mention that this was the shop where he purchased his Stewards regalia on his first appointment