Corporal Adam Robert Hudson

Corp. Adam R. Hudson, Cape Fortress Engineers is another member listed in the Lodge Temperance 2557 hand written ROH on the last page of the minute book.

Adam was proposed at the regular Lodge meeting of Mon 20th March 1911 by Bro William Douglas and seconded by Bro A. Gourley as a fit and proper person to be a Freemason. A successful ballot was held on the 17th  April. He was recorded as a 23 year old Electrical Engineer residing at Glenlyon House, Bedlington. He was initiated into the Mysteries and Privileges of Ancient Freemasonry on the 19th June and passed to the second or Fellow Craft degree on the 21st August being raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason on the 18th September. He signed and received his Grand Lodge certificate in open Lodge on the 20th November 1911.

He left England on the “Medic” of the White Star Line departing Liverpool on the 8th February 1912 bound for Cape Town, South Africa. The passenger list records that he is 23 and an Electrician. There is also a record for Mr. A. R. Hudson who is a 31 year old “Soldier”, returning to Plymouth on the 26th April 1919 on board the “Briton” of the Union Castle Line from Cape Town.

On his return to England, Adam continued his masonic career when he joined St Cuthbert’s Lodge No. 1902 on September 10^th 1919. St. Cuthbert’s Lodge continues to meet in Bedlington, Adam’s home town, eleven times a year on the 1^st Wednesday of the month. Its Warrant of Constitution was issued by Grand Lodge on 19^th March 1881 and was consecrated on 23^rd June 1881.

Little is known about Adam’s time in South Africa. The Cape Fortress Engineers were based in Cape Town, South Africa and were a highly specialised unit that was formed shortly before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 to relieve Imperial troops occupied on Sapper tasks in the fixed defences of the Cape Peninsula. They existed throughout the war and were basically under the control of the Royal Engineers both in employment and training and later became the Fortress Engineer and Signals Section of the Permanent South African Force Engineer Corps.

There is no service or pension record or WW1 Medal Roll for Adam, which might be expected if he joined up in South Africa.

Adam Robert Hudson was born on the 8^th January 1888 in Bedlington, Northumberland to John and Susannah Jordan Hudson (nee Stoker).  John was a grocer by trade and by 1901 was General Manager of the Co-op Society general store in Bedlington. They were married in 1883 and had four children, including:

• William (b 1884)
• John Stoker (b 1887)
• Adam Robert (b 1888)
• Margaret Jane Jordan (1891)

Adam married Alice Steele Davidson in 1930 in Teesdale, County Durham and they had at least two children – John James D. (1931 – 1997) and Robert S. (b 1937) – and by 1939 the family were living in Morpeth and Adam was an electrical contractor and armature winder. Adam died on 10^th March 1962 leaving an estate of £3094 and Alice on 2^nd July 1980 with an estate of £47,339.

He is commemorated in Newcastle on the Roll of Honour 1914-18 Lodge Temperance 2557 (NUT254).

Page updated 19/11/2018