In order to understand the purpose of the Knights of the Golden Horn (KGH) it is essential to understand the Organisation from where it was formed.
The Knights of the Golden Horn originated in the nineteenth century within the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. The organisation seems originally to have had just one lodge, or ‘encampment’, the Hull Encampment, tasked with the running of ceremonies and the raising of members to the senior position of Knight of the Order of Merit.
In 1880 a group of Buffaloes met at the Robin Hood Hotel, Commercial Street, Middlesbrough, to discuss how to improve the Order of Buffaloes and make it more select. They decided that the answer was to expand the Knights of the Golden Horn as a higher order within the Buffaloes, and accordingly they applied for a charter from the Hull Encampment to open a new lodge on this altered basis. Permission was granted, and No.I Erimus Encampment opened in Middlesbrough on 22nd September 1880.
The new Order spread rapidly in North East England: by 1889 there were five more encampments, at Bradford, Wakefield, Huddersfield, West Hartlepool, and Stockton. All were subject to the rulings of the Hull Encampment and paid quarterly fees to it. There were three degrees: Companion, Knight Commander, and Order of the Shield.
All went well for several decades and the order
continued to expand within the RAOB; however, eventually friction began to develop between the various districts and the Hull Encampment. The districts wanted to pass new by-laws to suit their individual circumstances and the Hull Encampment continually vetoed them. In particular, the encampments wished to initiate new members, who were not Buffaloes, as Comrades of the Knights of the Golden Horn; this the Hull Encampment refused to allow. Finally, in 1926 the encampments sent a deputation to Hull to plead their case, which was rejected; they then decided to sever the connection with the Hull Encampment (and therefore with the Buffaloes) and form a new independent order, to be known as the Grand United Order of the Knights of the Golden Horn (GUOKGH).
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