Archie Renton, the Oldest Mason?
Archie Renton PM of Lodge St Serf No 327 came into this world on 21st October 1884, born number seven of seven children, three daughters and four sons. His father being a third generation Blacksmith, his mother a ladies Dressmaker. He left school at the age of thirteen to serve his apprenticeship as a Farrier with his father at Edenside, near St Andrews.
The family moved to Kinross in 1905, where they established their family business as General Engineers and Blacksmiths where Archie worked until the grand old age of 80 years when he finally retired. The only time he spent away from home was as a Sergeant Farrier with the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry during the First World War, when he served in Gallipoli and the Dardanelles. He also fought on the Belgian coast and Ypres, a place he described as “an awful place”.
On his return to Kinross after the war where he went into partnership with his dad. He then had to learn General Engineering as there was little or no work for a Farrier. Farming had become mechanised during his absence resulting in far fewer horses being used. He found work in the wool mills, doing maintenance work in the mills which had been established during his absence. Archie never had a holiday, his only holiday “Was in the First World War”.
He joined Lodge St Serf No327 in January 1910, which met at that time in the Upper Town Hall, High Street, Kinross. He became Director of Ceremonies the same year. In 1923 he became Right Worshipful Master of Lodge St Serf No 327. During that time he led the first combined Church Parade, which involved a total of six Lodges. Archie was RWM again in the years 1933,1934 and 1935. He held Honorary Rank of Jeweller in the Grand Lodge of Scotland and had Diplomas from both Grand Lodge of Scotland and the Provincial Grand Lodge of Fife and Kinross. His other hobby was Bowling, a hobby he had taken up in 1920 and carried on until 1982 when he finally gave it up.
To celebrate his Centenary year, a Past Masters Degree was held in the Masonic Hall, Muirs, Kinross on Saturday 27th October 1984. Archie took the Chair that night and Passed two Brethren of Lodge St Serf No 327, namely Bro. Alastair Robertson and Bro. William Hendry to the Degree of Fellow Craft. It truly was a night to remember with some 178 Masons signing the Tyle. The walls of the Lodge were running with condensation due to the vast number of bodies present. Lodge Piper Bro. A Murphy, Pipe Major with Kinross and District Pipe Band, Piped the Office-Bearers into the Lodge Room to a tumultuous welcome.
Following the Degree, a Celebration Dinner followed. The Ladies Committee of the Lodge prepared and served an excellent meal which was enjoyed by all. Among the guests that evening was the one and only Bro. Jimmy Shand of Lodge King Robert de Bruce No 304 who entertained the company in traditional style. Auld Erchie was “Fair Tain Oan”. Archie was presented with a beautiful Caithness Glass Chrystal Decanter from Lodge St Serf No 327 with his likeness engraved on the side. The Toast to Brother Renton was proposed by Brother Hector Smith PM of Lodge St Serf No 327 in due and ancient form. Brother Renton duly replied in due and ancient form. Lodge Office-Bearers that year were-Right Worshipful Master-Bro. Alex Mclean. Immediate Past Master-Bro. David Colliar. Depute Master-Bro. Arthur M Wardrope. Substitute Master-Bro. Jim McGregor. Worshipful Senior Warden-Bro. Alex Cumming. Worshipful Junior Warden-Bro. Peter Muir. Secretary-Bro. Campbell G Thomson. Treasurer-Bro. William Curr. Almoner-Bro. William J Davidson PM. Chaplain-Bro. Andrew Smith PM. Senior Deacon-Bro. John Whyte. Junior Deacon-Vacant. Director of Ceremonies-Bro. Peter Cumming PM. Bible Bearer-Bro. William B Sneddon. Jeweller-Bro. Ian Gourdie. Sword Bearer-Bro. William Crawford. Director of Music-Bro. Robert Bellinger. President of Stewards-Bro. Alex Braid. Junior Steward-Bro. Colin Braid. Inner Guard-Bro. Robert Elliot and Tyler-Bro. David Paul.
Archie Renton the Oldest Mason?
This short history was compiled from a taped evening’s conversation and is as near as possible to Archie’s own account, and in the order he gave it to me. It would have been presumptuous to edit such a memoir to any great degree, so chronology is by no means correct but I wanted to keep it in his own words and style.
By Kenneth J Ramsay Past Master Lodge Abernethy Round Tower No.1429, Honorary Member Lodge St. Serf No.327. (With additional material from a conversation recorded in 1977 for Kinross-shire Antiquarian Society).
Archie Renton was born on 21st October 1884 the youngest of seven children, four sons and three daughters and he is the only survivor. His father was the third generation Blacksmith in his family and his mother, Eliza Crichton was a Dressmaker and then a ladies maid. His first two years at school were in Aberlady in East Lothian and then the family moved to Guardbridge and eventually to Kinross in 1905. He left school when he was 13 to become a Farrier with his father and served his time there before moving to Elie.
He couldn’t get to the Boer War although he was anxious but the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry would not have him because he was only sixteen! He remembers stories from the papers about Ladysmith, Mafeking and Bloemfontein. All transport in his younger days was either by rail or horse and cart. There were virtually no cars in Kinross in 1905, but his father saw “horseless carriages gaun aboot a’ place in Perth today” at a Mart in 1904. Archie first saw motor cars at Guardbridge as they passed along the St. Andrews road. The gentry at that time all had two or three ponies and came out the three miles from St. Andrews to the Renton’s Smiddy at Edenside. There were few ladies on horseback in those days and if they were, always rode side-saddle, right up to World War 1. Archie was amazed when he saw his first bicycle with a free wheel when he saw the cyclist stopped peddling and the bike still went on. Archie came to live in Kinross on 1905, and that year, at the age of 20, he joined the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry. He was awarded the Long-Service Medal for 11 years’ service in 1914, and spent the war years in Gallipoli, the Dardanelles and France. The Yeomanry had an appalling time in Gallipoli, and were only evacuated by Field Marshall Kitchener’ command after an inspection. Archie’s reminiscences of that period make exciting reading:
Reminiscences of an old soldier by Archibald Renton
I mind when I was in the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry in the war. I became a Sergeant Farrier, shoeing the horses, ye ken. We were mobilised on the 4th of August 1914. Before my Call-Up Papers came an Officer frae Dunfermline, Ralph Stewart, came up to me at seven o’ clock in the mornin for me to go to the smiddy at HQ there. It was fu’ o’ horses. We were biddin’ at Sunnypark at the time, so I had jist tae flee back home to change intae my uniform, then back doon to get the job o’ mobilising the horses done. Another man, an army clerk, and me had to mak’ a note o’ a’ the details-height, age, markings and so on. There was two days’ work of that for there were 130 to 140 horses a’ thigither. Some had been commandeered frae the local farmers and ither folk, and peyed for of course, but many men had their ain horses. I picked a younghorse for masel’, but I was awfy vexed after, for he was untrained. O mind later on we went tae Huntingdon under Lord Lovat of the Scouts, ye ken, as the Highland Mounted
Brigade, and the King, Edward VII, came to inspect us. I was sitting on my horse at the back, not in the ranks for I was a Farrier, when my horse started to rear up in the air. The Sergeant next to me took a haud o’ the horse by the reins at its head till the King passed. Efter that we didnae care whit happened.
But back tae earlier. We formed up at Dunfermline and travelled tae Blairgowrie on horseback. Then later we went by cattle truck to Huntingdon, but that place was a’ filled up so we were sent on tae St. Ives. We were the first scouts ever tae be in St. Ives and the civilians were fair taen on wi’ us. We got great hospitality. “Oor horses were billeted in the cattlemarket which werenae covered so we set to and covered a’ the buchts wi wood and corrugated iron to protect the horses. We had just finished that when an order came in the middle o’ the nicht for us tae go tae a secret destination. We had a great carry-on getting everything ready and getting the horses on the train in the middle o’ the nicht. Even the engine driver wouldnae tell us where we were going.
Weel, as I was saying, I was in St. Ives last year and saw the corrugated iron roofs still on the buchts, but they were gey done and near collapsing. The hall where the men were billeted was now a garage full o’ cars, but I kent the place for the narrow entrance that led to a T-shaped building. But the big widen door was now a’ glass.
“From St. Ives we left during the nicht and arrived at oor secret destination-that was grimsby. The horses were billeted where they cured the fish-it was gey smelly. From Grimsby we went to King’s Lynn, then Wisbech, then to Fagenham (Fakenham). But before that we got embarkation leave. Then we went aboard. I mind there was a wee fella caud Bobby Petri frae Arbroath and him and me chummed up. He was scared that he wouldnae get to France and he would hardly believe us, when he got back frae Arbroath, that we really were aboot tae get there. We were issued wi’ new saddler and swords-we had rifles already, of course-and we were put on the train. But before we left Fagenham all the horses were dispersed among other regiments.
We went by train to Devonport and went on board the SS Andania. There were three regiments on board, two Lovat Scouts and one Fife and Forfar Yeomanry. We were first escorted by twa torpedo boats. I mind the sea was very rough and the torpedo boats were bobbing up and down. Then they went back and we were on oor ain tae Gibraltar and Malta. There the ship was loaded up wi bags o’ coal and later we were allowed on shore and took a walk out in the country. We saw them ploughing wi’ a camel and a horse together, and the plough was a richt primitive yin, like long ago days.
Comin oot o’ Malta harbour the Lovat Scout pipers got together and began to play, but the ship’s Captain was fair flaming’ for there was too much noise and the place was hotchen wi’ submarines. As we got oot o’ the harbour a wee boat came alongside and started to signal us to stop, but we couldnae and the Captain jist whirled his boat roond in circles. Then we went on to Alexandria in Egypt. The harbour at Alexandria was closed at night-time so we jist had to keep going roond in circles again till the pilot came to take us intae the harbour. All oor stuff was taen off the boat, everything, and other boxes of stuff put on instead. So we had twa-three days in Alexandria. We had to walk through the toon and saw then gaun aboot wi barras o’ dates, muckle solid blooks o’ dates, that they were selling. Back into harbour again we opened the boxes and found web equipment for infantry.So we went on to Galipoli as infantry.
Oor first base was Limnos, an island off Gallipoli. The civilians there didnae like us. We landed on the peninsula in lighters, packed don below and on top like herrin’. Doon in the hold some fellas in the regiment that belonged tae religious societies were saying their prayers. The lighters had to run hard up on to the beach, then a door thing went doon flat and we got out and went up the beach. Weel, we landed there and lay there in the cauld for a good while. When all the men were off the boats we had to lie in the trenches-it was gey cauld.
The next nicht we were to be going up to the support trenches, but something happened. The Scottish Horse seemed to start a carry-on in the front line, and the Turks though they were being attacked, so they started firin’. We had to wait, then we had to go up with very little equipment. We dug oorsel’s in in the trenches. The Turks were on the hills lookin doon on us so we could dae natething during the day and finished the trenches at nicht. The place was fair boomin wi’ fleas; we couldnae drink oot tae for them. We had to whoosh them awa’ a’ the time; oor cups were fair black wi’ them. Then we were issued wi’ mosquito nets. We got some support now and were fixed up. The English regiments were in the front line. I mind there had been an attack on the Herefords in front o’ us and we found dead men all over the place in the dried-up river bed. Oor men buried them.
Then we had oor turn in the front line. There were Major Younger (o’ the ale people), Major Nairn (O’ the linoleum family in Kirkcaldy) and Major de Pree. He had a foreign name but was a grand fella and a good soldier. Oor adjutant was called Lindsay, he belonged to Craigfoddie, near Dairsie, and his younger brother, a lieutenant. They were both harem-scrum. The older one was called ‘Black Mick’ and the men would follow him anywhere.
Now I’ll tell you aboot the storm. We had been in the front line and were now back in the support trenches. There was tropical rain coming doon in buckets. It washed oot the trenches. I mind another Sergeant and I had a wee dugout, Tam Haig they called him. I was orderly sergeant at the time. We were preparing for the evacuation of the Peninsula as Kitchener had come to Galliploi and had ordered the evacuation efter he saw what it was like. Weel, we were making the trenches 7’ 6” deep so that the fellas could reach the boats withoot the enemy seeing them. The rain came on and the trenches were up to the waist in water. Haig and I had oor kitbags in a corner, mine on end and his on top of it. The storm stopped a bit so I left to see if anything could be done. The sandbags were covered wi’ waterproof sheeting, but when I pressed on them to climb oot the rain jist poured in and the dugout was flooded.
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