News & Grants - College of Arms
Coronation Roll
03 May 2024
The online version of the Coronation Roll of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla was launched today. The Coronation Roll is the official record of a Coronation and the earliest surviving roll is that of King Edward II and Queen Isabella in 1308.
The text of the Coronation Roll was compiled with the assistance of Garter King of Arms and other officers of His Majesty's College of Arms. The illumination beginning the roll (illustrated left) was designed and painted by Timothy Noad, Herald-Painter at the College of Arms, and depicts The King’s Arms, St Edward’s Crown, and the plant badges of the United Kingdom. The text of the Roll was scrivened by calligrapher Stephanie von Werthern-Gill.
On 26 April 2024, Antonia Romeo, Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, signed the completed roll at the College of Arms, in the presence of Garter King of Arms and other representatives of the College of Arms, Cabinet Office and National Archives. On 1 May, the roll was presented to Their Majesties The King and Queen at Buckingham Palace. Their Majesties received Timothy Noad to thank him for his work on the roll and his other heraldic work for Their Majesties.
The online version of the roll may be seen here. An interview with Garter King of Arms may be seen here. The BBC report of the signing at the College of Arms may be seen here.
Grants of Arms to Commercial Companies: The College of Arms has published a booklet on the subject of corporate grants of arms. An online version of it may be seen here. Enquiries about grants to companies should be addressed to the Officer in Waiting in the first instance.
Commercial firms have been granted coats of arms by the College of Arms for centuries. The first such grant in the College’s ‘modern’ (post-1673) grant records was by Garter and Clarenceux Kings of Arms to the firm of Peter de Clux, William Sherard and Paul Clowdesley and Partners, makers of alamodes, renforcé, and lute strings, on 14 March 1692 [Coll. Arms Grants 4/112]. The arms are seen right, with the blazon being:
Arms: Argent on a Cheveron Azure between two Butterflies countervolant in Chief Sable and a Mulbery Tree proper on a Mount in base Vert both charged with several Silkworms Or, three Cocoons or Silkworms Eggs of the last.
Crest: A Justice proper Crined Or, about the head a Glory, in the Right hand a Sword hilt and pomel gold, blade proper, in the left a pair of Scales Or.
A more recent grant was that on 20 January 1975 to the British Airways Board. Arms, crest and a badge were granted by Garter, Clarenceux and Norroy and Ulster Kings of Arms, and supporters by Garter King of Arms. [Coll. Arms Grants 137/62]. The blazon was as follows:
Arms: Argent between a Chief and a Bendlet sinister couped Gules a Gyron issuing from the dexter the point in sinister chief Azure.
Crest: Rising from an Astral Crown Or a Sun irradiated proper.
Supporters: On the dexter a Pegasus Argent crined unguled and winged Or gorged with an Astral Crown Azure and holding in the mouth a Sprig of Olive fructed proper and on the sinister a Lion guardant winged at the shoulders Or gorged with an Astral Crown Azure the whole upon a Compartment of a Grassy Mound proper dimidiating Water barry wavy Azure and Argent.
Badge (not illustrated): Within a Chaplet of Oak proper an Astral Crown Or.
On 20 October 1984 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II issued a Royal Licence transferring these arms to British Airways p.l.c and on 15 November 1984 the Earl Marshal issued a warrant ordering the Kings of Arms to exemplify the arms [Coll. Arms I.84/194]. On 18 December 1985 the three Kings of Arms issued Letters Patent exemplifying the arms in favour of British Airways p.l.c [Coll. Arms Grants 149/30].
Bluemantle Pursuivant
16 April 2024By Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm dated 16 April 2024, His Majesty The King has been pleased to appoint James van Someren Peill to the office of Bluemantle Pursuivant of Arms, vacant by the recent promotion of Mark John Rosborough Scott, now Somerset Herald of Arms. The appointment has been gazetted here.
James Peill, F.S.A. was brought up in the Welsh Marches and read History of Art at Edinburgh University. He was formerly the Curator of the Goodwood Collection. Prior to that, he was a Director of Christie's where he was a specialist in the Furniture Department and an auctioneer. He is the co-author, with the late Knight of Glin, of Irish Furniture (Yale University Press, 2007) and The Irish Country House (Vendome, 2010), and the author of The English Country House (Vendome, 2013). His most recent book is Glorious Goodwood, a Biography of England's Greatest Sporting Estate (Constable, 2019).
Somerset Herald
12 April 2024By Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm dated 12 April 2024, His Majesty The King has been pleased to appoint Mark John Rosborough Scott to the Office of Somerset Herald of Arms, vacant by the promotion in 2021 of David Vines White, now Garter King of Arms. The appointment has been gazetted here.
Hage Geingob: flag instructions
04 February 2024Following the death of Hage Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia, special instructions have been received that as a mark of respect UK Government Buildings should lower their Union Flags to half-mast from as soon as possible today, Sunday 4th February 2024, until 20.00hrs on Monday 5th February.
Any other UK national flags flown alongside the Union Flag when it is at half-mast should also be at half-mast. If a flag of a foreign nation is normally flown on the same stand as, or instead of, the Union Flag, it should be removed.
Local authorities are not bound by this request but may wish to follow it for guidance. Devolved administrations are responsible for issuing instructions for the flying of the Union Flag on buildings in their estate and others as necessary. Enquiries regarding the correct protocols for the flying of Union and other flags should be addressed to the Officer in Waiting at the College of Arms in the first instance.
Register to receive up-to-date advice from the College of Arms on official flag-flying days, instructions for flying flags at half-mast, and other relevant information, here.
