Sadly, the 11th of November 2018 marked the passing of W.Bro. Derek Guyett to the Grand Lodge above.
Derek and myself were very close pals for some 30yrs. At the time of our first meeting in June 1988, Derek was still working and he and his lady Marie, used to visit Javea for 2 or 3 weeks in the spring and autumn.
After I was Initiated into Javea 40 in March 1991, he asked many questions about Freemasonry, to which my stock answer was “I can’t tell you that”. However, when Logia Deportiva was consecrated in October 1994, they decided that, as most of the local Lodges held their annual Ladies Festival in the autumn between September and November, they would hold theirs in May. This coincided with Derek and Marie’s regular visits to Javea and I invited them to their first Ladies Night, which they thoroughly enjoyed, and that became an annual event every May, until Derek retired to Spain at the end of 2001.
The first thing he asked me after he retired was, “when are you going to invite me into the Masons?”. I replied “I’m not”. “why?” he asked, because you don’t get invited, you have to ask, which he immediately did and Eric Burton was only too pleased to Second him. He was Initiated into Javea 40 on 22nd May 2002, Passed in May 2003 and in the October, still only a Fellowcraft, he became Javea 40’s Charity Steward. He was Raised in May 2004. In May 2006, he was promoted to PGStwd becoming a Founder of the Lodge and in February 2008, he was promoted again, to PAGChStwd, which he held for 3 years.
Coming to Masonry later in life, Derek struggled with the learning of Ritual, although he always did his very best, and that’s all you can ask of him. But on the social side, he excelled. In the six years that he was Javea 40’s Charity Steward, he raised many thousands of euros for the Lodge’s charities, in the many functions that he and Marie organised, they worked as a team and that was recognised by Province. To have a Junior Brother holding an active rank in Province was a rarity.
He was Installed in the Chair of King Solomon in Puerto de Javea Lodge 58, his second affiliation, in October 2012.
My wife Pat once asked him, just after he was Passed, how was he getting on in Freemasonry. His response was, that all his life he has been looking for something to believe in – and now he’d found it. That statement says it all.
The passing of Derek is a great loss to Javea 40, to this Province and to Freemasonry in general. It has also left a gap in my life, which will take a long time to heal.
W.Bro. Derick Wait