ST. GEORGE LODGE NO. 2170 E.C.
Hall Stone Lodge
Year of Warrant - 1886
Meets at the Victoria Masonic Temple, Colombo on the last Thursday in the months of January, February, March, May, June, July, September, October and November. Installation in January.
COLOMBO in 1886 must have been a very different place from what it is today. There was no resident Lodge in Colombo working under the English Constitution. There were, however, three Irish Lodges — Sphinx (1861), Leinster (1868), Serendib (1863) and one Scottish Lodge — Bonnie Doon (1877). There was also one English Lodge — St. John's Lodge of Colombo, formed in 1838, but this had been transferred to Kandy about the year 1858.
This briefly then was the position on January 15th, 1886, when "A preliminary Meeting of Brethren, interested in the formation of a Lodge under the English Constitution, was held at the Freemasons' Hall, Colombo".
Five Worshipful Brethren and three Brethren were present all of whom were members of Sphinx or Leinster and it is therefore, to the Irish Masons that St. George owes its existence.
Worshipful Brother Cantrell proposed "That if is very desirable, that a Lodge under the English Constitution be started in Colombo". Followed by a proposal “That the Lodge be called St. George’s Lodge”.
While the name of the Lodge was definitely recorded as “St. George’s”, the final “S” was deleted in different coloured ink at a later date and at the first Installation Meeting in November 1886 the name appears as St. George Lodge as it does on the Lodge Warrant.