The First Grand Master of the Grand Priory of England was the Most Eminent & Reverend Knight Leslie Felgate Dring, GCHC, who was also ME&S Grand Master of Knights Templar of England & Wales etc., until his retirement in early 2011.
The current Grand Master is:
M.Em. & Revd.Kt. Dr Vivian Thomas, JP, G.C.H.C
Anglo Saxon Prefecture regulates the Order in the Templar Provinces of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, London, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex & Oxfordshire, Berkshire & Buckinghamshire.
The Regional Grand Prefect is:
Right Reverend Knight David Jordan, KBHC
The Dragon emblem has been associated with England for over a thousand years. The English Dragon was first referenced by Nennius who talked of a Dragon representing the Saxons in 'Historia Britonum'. Both Henry of Huntingdon and Matthew of Westminster talked of a Golden Dragon being raised at the Battle of Burford in 752AD. The ancient dominant Kingdom of Wessex used a Golden Dragon as its emblem. King Harold II raised the Dragon standard at Hastings in 1066. Geoffrey of Monmouth talked of a White Dragon representing the Saxons in 'Historia Regum Britanniae'. Richard the Lionheart raised the 'terrible standard of the Dragon...' in the crusades of 1191. Henry III issued a mandate 'to cause a Dragon to be made in a fashion of a standard....' in 1216. Edward III raised 'his unconquerable standard of the Dragon Gules' at the battle of Crecy in 1346. Henry V raised the Dragon standard at Agincourt in 1415. The Dragon was with us for hundreds of years and still remains an ancient emblem of England.
