The famous Masons

HRH Prince Edward the Duke of Kent (1935 - )

HRH Prince Edward the Duke of Kent was initiated into Royal Alpha Lodge No. 16 on 16 December 1963.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip (1921 - 2021)

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip) was a Freemason. He was initiated into Navy Lodge, No 2612 on 5 December 1952.

King George VI (1895 - 1952)

King George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George, Duke of York) was born on 14 December 1895 in Sandringham, Norfolk, and was King of the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1952.
George VI was initiated in Navy Lodge No. 2612 on 2 December 1919.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.
Churchill was initiated into Studholme Lodge No. 1591 (now United Studholme Alliance Lodge) on 24 May 1901.

George Washington (1732-1799)

The first President of the United States, George Washington was initiated as a Freemason in 1752. He graduated to Master Mason in less than a year and performed Masonic rites when he laid the cornerstone of the Capitol in 1793. He received a Masonic funeral; even today, Masons take pilgrimages to his tomb at Mount Vernon.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Prominent scientist, inventor, and civic activist, the United States founding father Benjamin Franklin is perhaps one of the most famous Freemasons. Alongside his duties as Grand Master of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin formulated theories of positive and negative electrical charges and invented the lightning rod and bifocal glasses.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

Ronald Reagan, originally an American actor and politician, became the 40th President of the United States serving from 1981 to 1989. His term saw a restoration of prosperity at home, with the goal of achieving “peace through strength” abroad.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

Shortly before becoming president due to McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt joined the local Masonic Lodge in his hometown and vacation home of Oyster Bay, NY. He stayed an active member during and after his presidency.

J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972)

One of the Freemason’s most dedicated members was the founder of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. He was a Master Mason by 25 years old, became a 33rd-degree Inspector General Honorary in 1955, the highest level in Freemasonry.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)

FDR was an active Mason, first as a Master Mason in 1911, then in a number of different Lodges. In 1934, he was made an honorary Grand Master of the Order of DeMolay, a Masonic youth organization.

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53). As the final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. Under Truman, the Allies successfully concluded World War II; in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

The famous Austrian composer was the son of a Freemason and wrote several Masonic musical numbers. Composer Franz Joseph Haydn belonged to the same lodge as Mozart. Other notable Johann Christian Bach was also a Freemason.

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (1719-1787)

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.

Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782)

Johann Christian Bach was a composer of the Classical era, the eleventh surviving child and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is sometimes referred to as "the London Bach" or "the English Bach", due to his time spent living in the British capital, where he came to be known as John Bach.[1] He is noted for influencing the concerto style of Mozart.

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the "greatest humorist this country has produced", and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature". His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "The Great American Novel". Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. His humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", was published in 1865, based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention and was even translated into French. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, but he invested in ventures that lost most of it—such as the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of these financial setbacks, but he eventually overcame his financial troubles with the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers. He eventually paid all his creditors in full, even though his bankruptcy relieved him of having to do so. Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it" as well; he died the day after the comet returned.

Steve Wozniak

One of the Freemasons most famous contemporary members, the co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, became a Freemason in 1980 in California.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish writer, who created the character Sherlock Holmes. Originally a physician, in 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and more than fifty short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement", helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste.

Sir Alexander Fleming (1881 - 1955)

Sir Alexander Fleming was born in East Ayrshire, Scotland, on 6 August 1881 and he is best known for having discovered penicillin, which is still used to treat bacterial infections today.
In 1909 at the age of 27, Fleming was initiated into Sancta Maria Lodge No. 2682, which met in London.

Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)

Rudyard Kipling was well-known for his poems and novels, including The Jungle Book. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907.

He was born in India in 1865 and later lived in the UK. Kipling was initiated at the age of 20 in the Lodge of Hope and Perseverance No. 782 in Lahore in 1886.

Harry Houdini (1874-1926)

Harry Houdini, born Erik Weisz, later Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-born American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the US and then as "Harry 'Handcuff' Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it. In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who imitated his escape stunts. Houdini made several movies but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also a keen aviator and aimed to become the first man to fly a plane in Australia.

Oliver Hardy (1892-1957)

Oliver Norvell Hardy (born Norvell Hardy, January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy, the double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted from 1927 to 1955. He appeared with his comedy partner Stan Laurel in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles. He was credited with his first film Outwitting Dad in 1914. In most of his silent films before joining producer Hal Roach, he was billed on screen as "Babe Hardy."

Voltaire (1694-1778)

François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.

Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837)

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.

Buzz Aldrin

Buzz Aldrin is an American engineer and former astronaut, and the second person to walk on the Moon. He was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history. He set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 (UTC) on July 21, 1969, following mission commander Neil Armstrong. He is also a former U.S. Air Force officer and a Command Pilot.

Henry Ford (1863-1947)

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production.

Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford. In doing so, Ford converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the twentieth century. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and Americanindustry. As owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation and arranged for his family to control the company permanently.

Ford was also widely known for his pacifism during the first years of World War I, and also for being the publisher of antisemitic texts such as the book The International Jew.