Provincial Grand Lodge of East Lancashire><br /> <h1 class=The Provincial Grand Master

RWBro Paul James Ernest Rink, OBE

Provincial Grand Master

Province of East Lancashire

The Provincial Grand Master was born in Bolton in December 1940 in the middle of the Manchester blitz. His father was a refugee from Austria who had fled in 1938 meeting Paul's mother in Bury in the same year. He was educated initially at Clevedon House Prep School before going on to Sedbergh School. Sedbergh is well known for its rugby prowess - Will Carling and Will Greenwood are latest examples - Sedbergh produced, in our PGM's own words, "a very average sportsman in action but a passionate sports spectator".

On leaving school he entered Wolstenholme Bronze Powders Ltd. a company that had been started by his father in 1939 and financed by a well known Lancashire entrepreneur John Wolstenholme. It was the same John Wolstenholme who was an Assistant Provincial Grand Master in our Province from 1939 to 1947 and who gave his home, Walshaw Hall, to the Province as an old people's home. By sheer coincidence John Wolstenholme was also a member of the Prince of Wales Lodge No.1012 in which the PGM was initiated in 1968, proposed for membership by the late WBro Geoffrey Wilde the nephew of John Wolstenholme. The company manufactured metallic pigments and the PGM comments "there is some of our product in every household in the country and more important behind every bar in the world!" The gold pigment (it is in fact brass) is used as a pigment in the manufacture of gold printing inks to produce the gold on labels such as Cadbury's chocolate bars, whisky labels, cigarette packs, soup labels and a whole host of other forms of packaging. When you shop at Christmas at Woolworth's and purchase a gold metallic aerosol it contains Wolstenholme pigment. So make it a gold Christmas and keep the PGM in business.

The company went public in 1967 and was quoted on the London Stock Exchange for many years. In 1978, when his father died, the name was changed to Wolstenholme Rink Plc to associate the two founders of the business. The PGM retired as Executive Chairman in 1999 and as non executive Chairman in 2005. The company de-listed and became private again in 2000.

He was initiated into the Prince of Wales Lodge No.1012 in Bury in 1968 and became Worshipful Master in 1975. A year out of the chair in 1977 he was appointed a Provincial Deputy Grand Director of Ceremonies under Peter Walthall as Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies. His first visit to Provincial Grand Lodge was to be invested and he remembers when he was asked by Peter Walthall whether he would like to serve as a Deputy DC his immediate response was, "What is a Deputy DC?"! In 1985 he was appointed to United Grand Lodge as an acting Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies.

In 1993 he was asked by RWBro Jimmy Hemsley to become an Assistant Provincial Grand Master over the Salford area and in his own words "that was the start of a number of happy years amongst the brethren of Salford".

In 1999, when RWBro Peter Walthall became our Provincial Grand Master, Bro Rink became his Deputy and in the year 2000 had the significant honour of being the acting Grand Sword Bearer of England, the first time that honour had been bestowed on an East Lancashire freemason. The PGM is anxious to let us know that he did not drop it during his year of office!

In the Royal Arch he was Exalted into Social Chapter No. 62 in 1975 and became First Principal in 1981. He was appointed acting Provincial Scribe Nehemiah in 1987 and then appointed to Supreme Grand Chapter in 1989 as PAGDC. He was promoted to PAGSoj in 2000.

The PGM is also a Mark Mason, a member of the Rose Croix and the Secret Monitor.

In 1989, together with other private companies in Blackburn and the Local Authority, he started the Blackburn Groundwork Trust and was its Chairman for 10 years. The Trust concentrates on trying to place the environment on the industrial and public agenda and the Trust was, and still is, involved in a whole variety of environmental projects in the town. In 1983 he was appointed to the Advisory Committee to the Government on Business and the Environment and served for three years. In 1995 he was awarded an OBE for his service to the environment and the community.

He has always been a keen sportsman although (he says himself) with limited ability. Bolton Wanderers is his first love and he has been a supporter since queuing up with his father on Manchester Road Bolton in 1947. Unfortunately he was at school when his team beat Manchester United in the Cup Final in 1958 - yes it was a perfectly good goal he says! - but was at Wembley to see England win the 1966 World Cup as he was in Sydney to see England win the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The exploit of the England cricket team this summer was another highlight and, with the rest of the country, he was glued to his television set. He is an average golfer "never won a tournament in my life" but constantly turns up for the Derby Cup hoping that one day he might be able to present it to himself. In 1982, for a bet, he completed the London Marathon in the creditable time of 3hrs and 45 mins and has not run a yard since! He is a great lover of classical music and he and his wife Marlene make regular visits to the Bridgewater Hall. When younger he was a creditable violinist but found at age 20 that rugby and other matters that concern 20 year olds took over. He and Marlene love walking which they can do from their farmhouse on the edge of the Lancashire moors or guided around the Lake District by their great friends WBro Andrew Sykes and his wife Barbara.

His vision for Freemasonry in East Lancashire has been set out in his Installation address (which is available on the website). He repeats that Freemasonry as a way of life is there to be enjoyed and he and his team are determined to do all in their power to allow that to happen.