John Belton

I became a freemason in 1980 and a friend got me interested in masonic research and the history of it all. By education I was a microbiologist, by profession a marketing and export guy in the pharmaceutical industry, and in retirement by inclination a searcher out of masonic curiosities, historian and writer. I have written articles for the English masonic magazine The Square for over a decade and more serious papers have been published around the world in the transactions of masonic research societies. These have covered research in the fields of the decline in masonic membership in the last half of the 20th century, masonic international relations, the British fraternal involvement in the Italian Risorgimento (that is helping Guiseppe Garibaldi), and most recently the events in the British Isles that led to the two rival English Grand Lodges deciding to join together in 1813. Historical research always offers surprises and this is reflected in the book. More details can be found at www.ahimanrezon.org.uk