The Freemasons’ Grand Charity looks after freemasons in need, and a lot more besides, says head of communications Siobhan McCarthy.

We’re the central grantmaking charity of all freemasons in the UK. All the money we have and use in our grants is donated to us by freemasons across the country, in England and Wales specifically. The charity has been going for about 30 years. The idea of charitable giving and freemasonry has been going since the beginning. Initially the charity was brought about as a benevolent arm for freemasons who had fallen on hard times.