Book-review
W. Bro Colin Macdonald has tracked Warren's incredible action-packed life from a small village, Bangor in Wales, to Gibraltar, Palestine, South Africa, Egypt and Singapore and many countries in-between.
Everywhere Warren traveled, he came into immediate contact with like-minded men of upright character, aware of moral principals, who were at ease socially, discussing the principals of morality and existentialism.
These were Freemasons.
As the Masonic movement had established a solid base in 1717, and the schism between the Antients and Moderns healed, organized Freemasonry spread from Europe to the Colonies, influencing almost every settlement in the newly-formed overseas territories. Men, such as Warren, became the founding fathers of Cites from Canada to the Cape of Good Hope and Scotland to Shanghai.
As a Lewis (son of a Freemason) born into a privileged family in the Victorian era, Warren was a child of his times. Boarding school and military academy held no surprise.
His early influence in that crucible of Masonic zeal at that time in Gibraltar set him on the road to greatness.
In Gibraltar Warren met in lodge for the first time Robert Freke Gould and Frances George Irwin and many years later in London these three Brethren would get together again as founding members of the most influential research lodge ever established, the Quatuor Coronati Lodge #2076 E.C.
He accepted challenges as an adventure. He volunteered for difficult and dangerous assignments, which when carried out with a moral backbone and vision of the result, would become his trademark.
He was also backed by a strong invisible circle of support, a Bond of Brotherhood, which has been present for centuries and will continue for centuries to come.
Macdonald's book is easy to read, well documented and with six notable appendices.
The most complete Warren's biography written so far and a great Masonic book indeed.
Bruno Gazzo
Editor, PS Review of Freemasonry.
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