He was a doctor of medicine. In 1871 he became active in
Freemasonry where he became Master of his home Lodge three years later and also the
Quatuor Coronati research lodge (Master 1893–94). In 1879 he moved to Hendon. In 1880 he began studying the
Kabbalah and joined
Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. In 1882 he met
Samuel Liddell Mathers.
Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia Westcott became chief of the SRIA with the death of
William Robert Woodman.
The Golden Dawn Westcott co-founded the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn with
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and
William Robert Woodman in 1887, using the motto V.H. Frater
Sapere Aude. Around this time, he was also active in the
Theosophical Society, where he founded in 1891 the Adelphi Lodge in London WC. In 1896, he abandoned public involvement with the Golden Dawn due to pressure regarding his job as a Crown Coroner, with which it was seen as an unseemly association. He continued to head the S.R.I.A. and later was involved with the Golden Dawn breakaway
Stella Matutina.
Later years He retired as a coroner after 1910, emigrated to the
Union of South Africa in 1918, and died in
Durban in 1925. == Bibliography ==