The Warwickshire Armed Forces’ Lodge (WAFL) No. 10039 was formed in October 2023. The Lodge is settling into a good routine, embracing all the tenets and principles of Freemasonry but, more recently, has found form in supporting a cause close to its heart: the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  Scott McKenna set the initial links up and the baton was then taken on by the lodge’s first initiate, Peter Ridley. 

Peter has set up two morning sessions with a WAFL team.  The mornings start with a mug of steaming hot tea, a bacon sandwich and a natter before the graft and toil of tending to the graves.  The Brethren have tended to some 80 graves; tidying, cleaning and arranging each site the way it should be maintained. 

Peter has also taken to researching the story behind the fallen servicemen and women of the graves being tended; knowing and learning about the history of these brave service personnel has shone a completely different light on the work. The work has been a real focal point for the lodge and it is very fitting for this military lodge to take on this type of community work.  It is now set as the lodge’s responsibility to maintain the Commonwealth War Graves at London Road cemetery in Coventry; the epitome of military brotherly love.