Julian Rees was born in 1936 and after attending St Paul’s School in London he served in the Royal Army Education Corps in Berlin. On leaving the armed forces he made a career in textiles. He studied German and French at London University. In 1968 he was initiated in the Kirby Lodge No. 2818 in London, was Master in 1976/77 and again at the centenary of the Lodge in 1999/2000. He is a holder of the silver matchbox award of the Emulation Lodge of Improvement, and has also served there on the Precepting Committee. He was Master of the German-speaking Pilgrim Lodge No. 238 in 1978/79. He has been a regular contributor to the quarterly magazine Freemasonry Today since its founding in 1997 and from 2003 to 2007 he was Deputy and News Editor. In 2003 he delivered the Wendel K Walker Memorial Lecture in New York, entitled Through Ritual to Enlightenment. He was one of the founding members of The Cornerstone Society, serving as Secretary for a number of years, and has lectured to lodges in England, in USA, in Africa and continental Europe. He has been honoured by the Institut Maçonnique de France with the Ordre Maçonnique de Lafayette. He was appointed active Junior Grand Deacon in the United Grand Lodge of England in 2007. In 2011 he left UGLE and joined the International Order of Freemasonry for Men and Women Le Droit Humain.