Oriel College Boat Club
A grant of a Badge was made to The Provost and Scholars of the House of the Blessed Mary the Virgin in Oxford commonly called Oriel College of the Foundation of Edward the Second of famous memory sometime King of England, for the use of Oriel College Boat Club, the Tortoise Club and the Oriel Society, by Letters Patent dated 20 April 2009 of Garter, Clarenceux and Norroy & Ulster Kings of Arms. A standard was exemplified, as illustrated left. College reference: Standards 5/125.
The Badge is blazoned A Tortoise displayed the shell circular Azure charged with two concentric annulets Argent.
The Patent was presented to the Provost at Oriel on 30 May by Clive Cheesman, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant.
The grant was made possible by the gen-erosity of Michael Goolden, an Orielensis and formerly member of the college's first eight.
Welcome to the twenty-first edition of the College of Arms Newsletter.
Illustrated left: the Arms, Crest and Badge granted to Douglas Frederick Harvey GROCOTT, of the parish of Calstock, Cornwall, CBE, AFC, by Garter and Clarenceux Kings of Arms. Letters Patent dated 5 January 2009.
Illustrated left is a portrait of Peter Gwynn-Jones, CVO, Garter King of Arms, by Daphne Todd, OBE, a past President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Garter is depicted wearing his tabard and carrying his staff of office, with a view of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral (which stands slightly to the north of the College of Arms) in the background.
Illustated right is a page from a manuscript in the College of Arms, dating from the reign of Henry VIII and depicting characteristic heraldry of the period. This manuscript was probably compiled under the direction of Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter (died 1534); the page illustrated perhaps represents a record of Arms granted by Wriothesley. Coll Arm Ms Vincent 153 f. 39.
Queen's Remembrancer: Her Majesty The Queen has been pleased to approve the Badge, illustrated left, for this, the oldest judicial post in existence. The first remembrancer was appointed in 1154 and subsequently became an official of the medieval Court of Exchequer; as such, the post is today the sole surviving element of the apparatus of that court. The black-and-white checky roundel in the new badge is a reference to this origin. For more information on the post and its current and former duties, see this site.