Most Worshipful Brother
William Sinclair MacTavish, PGM
Grand Lodge of
Prince Edward Island, A.F. & A.M.;
Grand Master 1983 – 1984

Most Worshipful Bro. MacTavish was born March 5, 1923 in Lower Newton to Duncan A. and Catherine Smith MacTavish. Following completion of his education at Lower Newton School and Prince of Wales College, he farmed most of his life on the family ‘Century’ farm at Lower Newtown. Later, in the same community, the family operated ‘Linden Lodge’ – one of P.E.I.’s Country Inns – while Sinclair worked part-time with the P.E.I. Crop Insurance Agency.

Sinclair married the former Thelma MacDonald of Flat River. They raised two sons, Donald, who took over the family ‘Century’ farm, and Malcolm, who moved to Charlottetown and joined the accounting firm of Doane Raymond.

A member and Elder of St. John’s Presbyterian Church at Belfast, Sinclair served as Clerk of Session for more than three decades. Other community involvements included Secretary-Treasurer of the Belfast Recreational Centre, Secretary of the Belfast Medical Clinic Committee, and Director of the Belfast Rural Fire Department. He also served on the local School Board, and as Chairman of the Belfast Consolidated School District. At the time he was elected Grand Master, he was also the Returning Officer for the Electoral District of Fourth Queens.

Bro. MacTavish was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in Mizpah Lodge No. 17 in Eldon in 1955. He served as Master of that Lodge in 1968 and as Secretary from 1972-1982. He was appointed to the first in a series of Grand Lodge offices in 1973.

When he completed his journey to the Grand East in 1983, M.W.Bro. MacTavish was only the second member of Mizpah Lodge to have held that high office, the first having been the doctor who delivered Bro. MacTavish into this world – Dr. J.F. Martin, Grand Master in 1925.

For many years thereafter, Bro. MacTavish remained active in Grand Lodge affairs, and as the Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of New Brunswick and of the Grand Lodge of Iran near the Grand Lodge of P.E.I.

He laid down his working tools on 22 May 2011 and was honoured with a well attended Masonic Memorial Service.