The idea of forming a Scottish Lodge in Sabah was mooted in the early 2000s by Brother Neoh Ho Keat. At the time, there was only one Scottish Lodge in Kuching. He received the blessings of the then DGM, Brother David Lai, to explore this idea further.

Brother Ho Keat travelled to Kota Kinabalu to engage the local brethren and late Brother Tony Chan especially was very supportive of the idea. Brother Ho Keat also had the support of the brethren from across our District. It was decided that Lodge Kilwinning in the East 1606 SC, would be the sponsoring Lodge and Brother Lim Ooi Beng would be the founding Master.

Lodge Jesselton was mooted as a name for this new Lodge, Jesselton, being the colonial era name for Kota Kinabalu. Brother Ho Keat, however felt that a local name was more appropriate and ventured to the State Museum to conduct his research; he proposed the name of Lodge Api-Api. The older name for Kota Kinabalu is Api-Api, which is a Malay word meaning ‘Fire-Fire'. According to legend, In 1887, Mat Salleh, a local chieftain who rebelled against the British, burned the settlement at Gaya Island. From that incident, the capital was named “Api-Api”.

The design of the Regalia by Brother David Shen was the traditional weave of the local Kadazan-Dusun community. It’s beauty drew the attention of PGMM, Brother Joseph Morrow, who became our Proxy Master in 2020. This started the new tradition of new Lodges in the District not adopting traditional Scottish tartan designs for their regalia.

Lodge Api-Api 1826 SC was proudly consecrated on 17th January, 2004, by then DGM, Brother Neoh Ho Keat. The Lodge grew from strength to strength and was entrusted with the responsibility of organising the District Annual Communications in 2009 and 2017.