MASONIC BIOGRAPHIES FAMOUS FREEMASONS

Lord Thomson of Fleet Topix photo June 5, 1894 - August 4, 1976 "It is the social mission of every great newspaper to provide a refuge and a home for the largest number of salaried eccentrics." The son of a Toronto barber, Roy Herbert Thomson started his first radio station, CFCH North Bay, in March of 1931. CKGB went on the air in 1932, followed by CJKL Kirkland Lake in 1933, the same year he started his first newspaper, The Press. A joint venture with Rupert Davies, put CHEX Peterborough on the air in 1942, and CKWS Kingston in 1943. Both were granted television licences in 1954. From this base he acquired newspapers around the world in a dozen countries as well as many magazines and printing companies. Thomson also owned a half a dozen radio stations outside Canada and a dozen television stations, notably Scottish Television based in Glasgow. He is perhaps best known for his purchase1 of The Scotsman published in Edinburgh and The Sunday Times of London. His Peerage was bestowed on him in 1964: "Baron Thomson of Fleet". Initiated: December 19, 1930 Passed: February 27, 1931 Raised: April 17, 1931 Suspended: December 13, 1935 Restored: February 1, 1937 Withdrew: May 20, 1938 North Bay Lodge No. 617 Source: Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario records. Roy Thomson of Fleet Street, Russell Brandon Collins. 1965. 1. Thomson’s autobiography, After I was Sixty, notes the purchase on 3 September 1953 [London : Hamish Hamilton Limited, 1975. p, 13.] although reference texts such as The New Britannica Encyclopaedia, The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia and Russell Braddon’s Roy Thomson of Fleet Streetstate 1952.

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