During World War 1 the Orange Order left no doubt as to the Orders’ loyalty to King and Country.

The Orange Order had more members volunteer for military service in World War 1 than any other politico-religious organisation in the world.  It is estimated that more than 200,000 Orangemen saw service in World War 1 including 80,000 from Canada alone. It is estimated that 3 out of every 10 Canadian soldiers who enlisted were members of the Orange Order.

Many Orange Lodges never reopened after the war due to the very high number of Lodge members who were killed. In addition to Orangemen from Great Britain and Canada, Orangemen from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and several smaller countries volunteered their services for King and Country.

The first Australian killed in World War 1 was Able Seaman William George Vincent.  He was a member of Melbourne Loyal Orange Lodge No. 92. 

The sacrifice of Orangemen was great as was their bravery. The resolve of those young men may be seen in the dying words of Brother Private F. Holt, 4th Kings Liverpool Regiment, (a member of Loyal Orange Lodge No. 782 in England) fatally wounded at Neuve Chapelle on April 14th, 1915 who told his comrades "I have done my duty to my King and Country and I have not forgotten the Orange obligation I took in 782".

David Yates, Signal Star
July 30th, 2020

In a young Ontario the Loyal Orange Lodge was the province’s most powerful fraternal organization. At the turn of the last century, when the Loyal Orange Lodge was its peak, it is estimated that one in three Ontario males was affiliated with the Order.

They were militantly Protestant, Celtic, fanatically British and numbered Prime Ministers among their members. For nearly 160 years, the Orange Order maintained a strong Goderich presence.
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On July 12, 1834, when Goderich had a population of nearly 100 people, 14 Orangemen gathered at the home of John Cox.

The small band marched to Captain John Longworth’s home who in turn, provided them with appropriate refreshments wrote local historian W E Elliott.
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The following year, a warrant was issued for Goderich Lodge #145 on March 17, 1835 (St. Patrick’s Day) to James Elliott by the Grand Orange Lodge of British America and in December 1845, the lodge was re-designated #182 and later named Victoria Lodge.

David Yates,
The Signal Star

At the turn of the last century, when the Loyal Orange Lodge was at its most powerful, it is estimated that one in three Ontario men was a member of the Order. They were militantly Protestant, Celtic, fanatically British and numbered Prime Ministers amongst its member.

For nearly 150 years, the Orange Order was represented by Murphy Lodge No. 710.

Graeme Cousins, Newsletter
18th March 2020
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GRAEME COUSINS finds out why a blood and thunder band from Co Armagh have been invited to a special parade in Canada.

A marching band from Portadown is gearing up for a return to Canada where it will take part in the longest continually running procession in North America.

Portadown True Blues Flute Band’s first visit to Toronto came in 1982 to take part in the city’s Twelfth of July celebrations.
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Orange historian Quincey Dougan said: “The Orange heritage of Canada is well known, but lesser known is that the Toronto Twelfth of July celebrations can actually lay claim to being the longest continually running procession in North America, if not the entire world.

By Brian McConnell

The War Memorial in Sydney's Wentworth Park is impressive and unique, commemorating men killed in the First and Second World Wards who belonged to the Loyal Orange Lodge of Cape Breton.

​War Memorials are located in communities around Nova Scotia, but none are like the one in Wentworth Park in Sydney, Cape Breton. The monument is very impressive, standing well over three metres high, and is inscribed with the names of 61 Nova Scotians killed in the First and Second World Wars. These men were all members of Orange Lodges in Cape Breton County.

SALMON COVE, N.L. - This week, members of Loyal Orange Lodge 167 Roseville in Salmon Cove were gearing up for the biggest event in the group’s history.The local group is hosting the 147th session of the Provincial Grand Lodge for the first time in its 106-year history.

“It’s something that we’ve wanted to do on a number of occasions, but the opportunity did not arise for us to do it,” recording secretary Willis Parsons told The Compass on April 30, as he and other members prepared pamphlets for the event, which was scheduled to run May 4 to 8. “But this year, we seemed to put a bit of a push at the local level to get involved. We’re only small in numbers and we thought it was too much work, but this year we took it upon ourselves to give it a try.”

L.O.L. 167 Roseville has 14 members and expects to have close to 100 people in attendance for the provincial event, which includes a banquet, parade and church service, among other festivities. Former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Paul Davis is the scheduled guest speaker for the banquet on May 4.
Andrew Robinson

For after a little bit of digging they've unearthed the surprising fact that Wallace Floody, on whom Charles Bronson's Tunnel King character in the Great Escape movie was based, was a leading Orangeman who's being remembered at events to mark this year's 75th anniversary of the break-out.Yet until 2018 the Order here had absolutely no knowledge about Floody, his Orange background or of his ties to the Great Escape, making him the one that got away, so to speak.

A call from Canada last year alerted local Orangemen to the possibility that Floody might have been a member of the Order on the other side of the Atlantic.
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And it was later confirmed that he was indeed an Orangeman.

The Glorious Twelfth is a significant date in the Orange Order calendar, marking the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

The Orange Order is a Protestant organization based predominantly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout Canada and the United States.

In Northern Ireland in 1795 the first Orange Lodge was established, with the date of the society’s first general meeting recorded as July 12, 1796.
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On July 12, approximately 30 Orange Lodges will gather at the Neelin Street Community Centre (arena) in Carleton Place to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne’s 328th anniversary. Activities include a service of worship at 3 p.m., conducted by Rev. Dr. Ron Hunt of St. Bede’s Anglican Church in Nolan’s Corners. A roast beef dinner follows at 4:30 p.m.

The Loyal Orange Lodge (LOL) is a Protestant fraternal organization that began in County Armagh, Ireland, in 1795.  The first lodge in Newfoundland and Labrador was Royal Oak Lodge in St. John’s, established in 1863. From there, the fraternity spread across the province. Between 1920 and 1960, approximately 35% of adult male Protestant Newfoundlanders were Orangemen, making lodge membership more popular in Newfoundland than anywhere else in the world, including Northern Ireland.

The Cromwell Loyal Orange Lodge No. 81, Shearstown, was constructed in 1898 and was dedicated with the name of Cromwell in 1901. It was one of the earlier community organizations to arrive in Shearstown. Its first master was Martin Sharpe.

​Distributes over $37,000 to Trinity-Conception community groups.

HARBOUR GRACE, NL — For decades, Loyal Orange Lodge Chosen Few 153 Tilton has supported a variety of organizations.

While Tilton may be in its name, the group's membership comes from all over the Trinity-Conception area. With the general membership of this Protestant fraternal group aging more every year, several LOLs in the region now cease to exist. Those Orangeman who did remain are now a part of the Tilton group. As a result, it has more communities to serve than ever before.
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In 2017, the group donated over $37,000 to different organizations, including schools, fire departments, food banks, churches and non-profits active in the health sector such as the Janeway Children's Foundation, Daffodil Place and the Trinity-Conception-Placentia Health Foundation.

By Stephen Hill;
Haliburton Highlands Museum Curator 

The Loyal Orange Lodge with its principles of loyalty to the Crown and the preservation of the Protestant religion originated in Ireland in 1795. Symbolic of the order was King William III who at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 defeated the Roman Catholic forces of James II and thereby secured Protestant succession to the British Throne. Orangeism gradually spread abroad being officially organized in Canada in 1830. Its ideology was concurrent with the times and was shared by members and non-members alike.

King Billy has once again strode the streets of Carleton Place — albeit sidestepping Lake Avenue construction.

The annual July 12th parade, commemorating the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland in 1690, when the forces of the Protestant King William of Orange defeated the forces of the Catholic King James II in County Meath, was held in Carleton Place this past Wednesday, starting at the arena on Neelin Street.

​Orange Lodges from across eastern Ontario, from as far away as Renfrew County and Morrisburg, joined in the march, which went from the arena to downtown’s Bridge Street, and back. The parade, in years past, has gone down Lake Avenue to get to the downtown core, but had to be diverted this year because of ongoing construction work on the road.

Belfast Telegraph
July 10 2017

​The birthplace of Orangeism may be Armagh, but brethren stepped out in cities across the world over the weekend as the build-up to the Twelfth continues.

In Toronto, Canadian flags were held aloft along with Orange banners and Union flags as the annual procession made its way through the busy downtown area.

Orange lodges in Canada date back to 1812 and Toronto's parade appears to be the longest continually running parade in North America. It started in 1820.

A number of Orange parades also take place in Australia each year. Adelaide held its annual Twelfth parade last week.

One of the strongest presences of the Orange Order outside Northern Ireland is in Scotland, where on July 1 an estimated 4,500 people in 63 bands paraded through Glasgow city centre.

In England a number of parades are held in Liverpool, including a junior Twelfth parade through the city centre yesterday. On Wednesday parades will be held in Southport and Liverpool.

An estimated 5,000 marchers from 125 different lodges are due to take part.

There are also functioning Orange lodges from as far away as the United States to African states such as Togo.

Meanwhile, the Orange Order placed a full-page advertisement in Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers on Saturday, including the nationalist Irish News.

The advert for Belfast Orangefest 2017 urged people to come to the city to enjoy the Twelfth parade, a food festival and street entertainment.
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It also noted that shops in the city would be open from noon.

“Waltzes, polkas, rills and trills and smiles” High low I go, how we danced them all …”

The words of the song, “Dance at the Orangemen’s Hall,” written by the late Fred Peach describe some merriment there over a century ago, relating a humourous story of mischief and its consequences. For anyone over a certain age, the Orangeman’s, or Orange Hall as it was called, evokes a flood of memories.

​The name had nothing to do with colour at all. Back in 1889, a group of the Orange Order formed in Cow Bay (Port Morien) and built a meeting hall there. The Order was named for Prince William of Orange, who seized the British throne after defeating the Catholic King James in battle. The Orangemen promoted the Protestant faith and mutual aid of their members. It wasn’t uncommon for members of many religious groups at the time to form exclusive fraternal organizations.

By Julian Fowler, BBC News NI

More than 200,000 men from across the world who fought during the First World War were members of the Orange Order, according to the institution.

The Battle of the Somme has been described as Orangeism's greatest triumph and its heaviest defeat.

At least five Orangemen were awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry, including Robert Quigg from Bushmills for his outstanding bravery on the battlefield.

In an historical twist of fate, the Battle of the Somme commenced on the anniversary (according to the Julian calendar) of the other great battle at the heart of Orange identity, the Battle of the Boyne.

The western chapter of the Orange Lodge of Canada recently gathered in Innisfail for its annual general meeting.

Orangemen from across the Prairies attended the event on April 16.

“We have an annual meeting of the right worshipful grand lodge, which is the four western provinces,” said William Johnston, most worshipful brother, past grand master and sovereign of the Grand Orange Lodge of Canada. “We meet once a year in April and this is the first time we’ve been in Innisfail.”

Johnston, a member of the Orange Lodge in Innisfail, was joined by about 30 to 40 members who all took part in the annual meeting that included a short memorial service.

Members marched to the Innisfail cenotaph led by a piper, where the group laid a wreath to remember the Orangemen who fought and died in the two world wars. The service also included the reading of Psalm 23 and a moment of silence. It was followed by a luncheon at noon and the annual banquet later that evening at the Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion.

​Saltwire Network

The Prince Arthur Loyal Orange Lodge #57 in Charlottetown will celebrate their 120th anniversary on March 19, 2016.

The group will celebrate with a divine Church service at the Emanuel United Church at 3 p.m. with Brother and Sir Knight, Pastor Glenn Jarvis. At 5 p.m. they will be serving a hot dinner with entertainment to follow.

This year, Prince Arthur LOL #57 Charlottetown will be donating $1 for every meal sold to charity. Their donations will be a 50/50 split between Daffodil Place and Ronald McDonald House in St. John’s.

In addition, they will have a voluntary donation box for those wishing to contribute.

The Provincial Grand Orange Lodge of Newfoundland and Labrador will also participate in the event. They will also make a donation on behalf of the provincial group.

For more information contact Ralph Ford at xxx@xxxx or by phone at xxx-xxx-xxxx.