Winston Churchill 1924 as a Major. On 24 May 1901 he was initiated into Freemasonry at Studholme Lodge No.1591, which at the time met in the Regent Masonic Hall at the Cafe Royal, London, passed to the Second Degree on 19 July, and raised to the Third Degree on 25 March 1902. Churchill met his future wife, Clementine Hozier, in 1904 at a ball in Crewe House, home of the Earl of Crewe and Crewe's wife Margaret Primrose (daughter of Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, and Hannah Rothschild). In March 1908, they met again at a dinner party hosted by Lady
Winston Churchill and praised by Neville Chamberlain as constructive. But within weeks Churchill was passed over for the post of Minister for Co-ordination of Defence in favour of Attorney General Sir Thomas Inskip. A. J. P. Taylor later called this "an appointment rightly described as the most extraordinary since Caligula made his horse a consul." At the time insiders were less worried: Duff Cooper was opposed to Churchill's appointment, while General Ellison wrote that he had "only one comment, and that is 'Thank God we are preserved from Winston Churchill. On 22 May 1936, Churchill was present at a meeting of Old