News & Grants - College of Arms
Due to the current pandemic, we regret that the College of Arms is closed to visits by members of the public. All the work of the College continues. Enquiries may be made by telephone on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on (+44) 207 248 2762, by email addressed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or through the form on this website here.
There may be a delayed response at this time but all enquires will receive a considered reply in due course.
Future alterations to these arrangements will be published here.
75th Anniversary of VE Day
29 April 2020Friday 8 May will be the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Her Majesty's Government has announced plans to commemorate the anniversary, which are summarized here.
Instructions have been issued that Government buildings should fly the Union Flag from 0800 hours on Friday 8 May until 2000 hours on Sunday 10 May.
There will also be a two minutes' silence at 1100 on Friday 8 May, and Her Majesty The Queen will send a message to the nation.
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.
The College of Arms in winter: this image of the main entrance of the College was taken by photographer and illustrator Humphrey Joel, probably during the notably cold winter of 1928-1929. The cars in the courtyard no doubt belonged to Officers of Arms; both bear London registration numbers.
Joel also created some striking images of the interiors of the College which are preserved in the archives. This image shows the Waiting Room, where enquirers are received. This interior remains much the same today. The Arms of Sir Henry Farnham Burke, Garter King of Arms, can be seen above the doorway into the Record Room, with those of Sir Gerald Wollaston, Norroy and Ulster, and Sir Arthur Cochrane, Clarenceux, to either side.
The White Lion Society has generously given the College of Arms a portrait of Philip Walter Kerr MVO FSA (1886-1941), who became Rouge Croix Pursuivant in 1928. The fourth son of Admiral Lord Walter Talbot Kerr, he was educated at the Oratory School, Edgbaston, and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After serving in the army in the First World War and in the Egyptian Civil Service from 1919-24, he died on active service as a Pilot-Officer (Intelligence) RAF at Shallufa in Egypt during the Second World War. He is dressed for the coronation of King George VI in 1937, in his tabard, and holding his staff ensigned with the Badge of Rouge Croix.
The artist was Charles Louis Geoffroy-Dechaume (1877-1944), a French Anglophile who can be identified from his monogram on the portrait. He lived in Sussex prior to 1914 but returned to France at the outbreak of the First World War and served in the 275th Regiment of Infantry, losing his left leg in 1914. He spent the Second World War at his house at Valmondois, north of Paris, where he was involved in the Resistance. His daughter Marie-France was also active, helping from 1941 to 1943 to rescue Allied pilots who had been shot down over France.
