In Memory of W.Bro. Dennis Herbert Squelch

                             
 

W. Bro. Dennis Herbert Squelch passed to the Grand Lodge above on Saturday 31st March 2012 having suffered a long term illness.

His funeral was held at Springwood Crematorium in Springwood Avenue, Liverpool on Thursday 12th April 2012 at 3.00pm. and was attended by many Mark Masons led by R. W. Bro. Peter Connolly, Provincial Grand Master of the Mark Province of West Lancashire.
 
 
Dennis lays a mark wreath in memory of those who fell.
 
W. Bro. Dennis was the Provincial Grand Senior Warden of the Province of West Lancashire in 2000 and was promoted to RAMGR in 2004, both ranks of which he was very proud to have bestowed on him. Dennis was, at one time, the Mark Charity Delegate.
 

He will be sadly missed throughout the Province but in particularly in the Garston area where he was so proud to spend a lot of his time supporting the Mark and RAM Lodges.
 

We can confirm that Dennis was in the LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) before being transferred to B Company of the SAS in 1941. As always these boys were keen not to talk about themselves and that stayed with Dennis all his life. He was highly decorated for saving the life of his commanding officer in Italy who was shot in the legs and on a railway track with a military train approaching fast and Dennis pulled him clear of the line.

 
He was also shot in the posterior when his group were chasing German soldiers across the Ethiopian Desert. He says he didn't get his a.... down quick enough when they returned fire. His big grief was that he lost all his comrades in his unit over Burma when their aeroplane crashed. He always blames himself for not being there as he was getting married to his late wife, Joan at the time on special leave.
 
After being discharged from the SAS he was attached to the Military Police for a while in Berlin before joining the Metropolitan Police in London. Joan hated London so he got transferred to the Motor Cycle division of the Police in Liverpool. After a few years he transferred to the Liverpool Fire Brigade and was at the time of the Henderson's fire in Liverpool in charge of the big turntable ladder. He finished his career as driver for the Chief Fire Officer in Liverpool.
 
Information from Derek Horrocks
 
This article has been adapted from the information supplied for the memoriam page. I feel it befitting that we leave a tribute on the website to dedicated Mark Mason with a distinguished past.
 
Should further information be forthcoming it will be updated.
Thank you Derek, Mike