HSS 40th Anniversary Sunday 12th February 2017

Sunday's celebrations of the Society's 40th Anniversary seem to have been much enjoyed by all.

Chairman's Message about tomorrow's 40th Anniversary

ELEBRATION OF 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SOCIETY

12 February 1977 – 12 February 2017

DRESS

It has been suggested that Highland Dress would be appropriate, and I would request that Fellows should wear their badges, as should those honoured with the Society’s Medal.

CHURCH SERVICE

Tomorrow we meet at St Vincent’s Church; the service starts at 10.30; if you are coming by car, parking is free on single yellow lines, and there are some around there, but please leave time for getting to the church.

The service is expected to last for about 60-70 minutes; afterwards there will be coffee in the crypt beneath the church, accessed from outside the church, and then those of us who are going to the lunch will set off for the New Club at about 12.20.

LUNCH

We shall set off to the New Club from the crypt, carrying banners, but not as a formal procession.

The lunch includes a pre-prandial drink in the Ramsay Room, but not wine at the table. So if you wish for liquid refreshment during the meal, please go to the cash (cards cannot be accepted) bar set up for that purpose. Lunch starts at 1.00 pm. We would expect lunch to finish say about 2.30 - 3.00; it is of three courses with coffee or tea afterwards.

We would then proceed with banners, but not formally, to the Portrait Gallery, to see the Library, where the meeting took place at which the Society was founded.

BANNERS

We hope that as many of you as have them will bring your banners. If you do so, please arrive before 10.15, when we shall gather on the steps of St Stephen’s Church, opposite St Vincent’s. The entrance has a porte cochère, so that we can shelter in it if the weather is not the expected brilliant sunshine! I hope there will be a photo of the group taken at this point.

If you do not have a pole, there are some in the church, but please arrive even earlier to allow time. The poles there have finials, so if your banner has a sock-sleeve, you will have to fix the banner to the pole with pins. There are drawing pins in the north aisle, but you will need a small hammer, as the wood is hard!

We shall then process into St Vincent’s, following the cross and two gonfanons of the church. After our banners will follow the President, President Emeritus, and Chairman, followed by the second cross which precedes the Minister. After the first verse of the first hymn the procession will move up the central aisle. The church banners will be positioned between the chancel and the nave, while we shall turn left into the north transept where there will be a stand for the banners. The flag party will then leave by the door at the back of the north aisle, and re-enter the nave from the west, so as not to disturb the service.

At the end of the service, during the last hymn, the banner bearers will move up the aisle, retrieve their banners, and then process out in the same order as we processed in, ie following the church’s banners. There will be a second stand for banners in the crypt, so please take your banners down there with you.

Schools and Heraldry

Does your school have a badge in a shield-shape? If it does, then it is a coat of arms and should be registered in the Lyon Office in Edinburgh.

Two of East Renfrewshire's schools have fine coats of arms, properly recorded in the Register:

Here is St Ninian's High School, Giffnock:

and now Eastwood High School:

Queen's Park Football Club

Many football clubs make very good use of heraldry and, if they have a competent lawyer on their Board,can so so legally in Scotland when the coat of arms has been registered at the Lyon Court. The oldest Football Club in Scotland is also the only amateur one in the Scottish Professional Football League. It was founded in 1867 and was granted a coat of arms in 1929.

Here is the arms it was granted:

The "Blazon" or description of the arms is "Barry of twenty-four Sable and Argent within a bordure of the Second" which means that the arms have twenty-four black and silver stripes and then a silver border round it.

Here is how Queen's Park uses the arms in its home strip and then on its shop:

The Duke of Lancaster

The title Duke of Lancaster has been held by the reigning Sovereign since 1399 and the rents and money raised by the Duchy is a major part of the Queen's income.

Anniversary of the Coronation

Today, June 2nd, marks the 63rd anniversary of the coronation of the Queen. To mark the occasion, here is the invitation specially hand-painted for Prince Charles.

Supreme Court Badge

The Supreme Court in the United Kingdom is the highest legal authority for Scottish CIVIL law. It has a wonderful heraldic badge, designed by Yvonne Holton, Dingwall Pursuivant and Heraldic Painter at the Court of the Lord Lyon. She was specifically asked not to include any of the traditional symbols for Justice - like the scales or the blindfolded woman - but to include plants from the four countries. Yvonne placed these inside a Greek "Omega" - the final letter of the Greek alphabet as this court has the last word!

Heraldic button for you to identify

Any suggestions for the origins of this button?

Here is a clearer drawing of the arms:

Heraldic Cigarette Cards

For many years, tobacco companies used beautiful cards to promote their filthy products. Several sets of these cards were to do with heraldry. Here are some from the Wills set of 1925:

Heraldry all around us

Keep an eye out for heraldry on public buildings - bridges are quite good as are old banks.

Here are two pictures of the coat of arms of the Cordiners of Edinburgh which you can see off the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. Cordiners (from the Spanish city of Cordoba which produced the finest leather in the middle-ages) are an ancient craft or Guild of up-market shoe-makers:

Pennons

Unlike the STANDARD and the GUIDON, which the Lord Lyon awards only to Clan Chiefs as a rule, anyone with a coat of arms can apply to have a PENNON which is a sort of miniature version of the other two, being about 1.2 metres wide.

Here are two pennons recently granted by the Lyon - you can have either a rounded end or a tapered end.

Painted by Maggie Spalding

Painted by Clare McCrory

A Tournament in "modern" times ....

Passing today through the planned village of Eaglesham, south of Glasgow, I caught sight of the arms of the Earl of Eglinton on the old Cross Keys Inn. Here is a snap, together with a picture of Archibald, 13th Earl of Eglinton, in full romantic fig for the famous tournament of 1839, an attempt let by the Earl of Eglinton at his castle in Ayrshire to recapture the spirit of mediaeval chivalry.

You can read all about it, and how the first attempt was rained off (sound familiar?) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eglinton_Tournament_of_1839

New Flag for the Swiss Guard

The Swiss Guard is the Pontifical Swiss Guard of the Holy See stationed at the Vatican in Rome.  The dress uniform is of blue, red, orange and yellow with a distinctly Renaissance appearance, often, probably mistakenly, thought to have been designed by Michelangelo. Their flag carries the arms of the current pope, Pope Francis Bergoglio, the founding pope, Pope Julius II Della Rovere, whose canting "rovere"/oak tree can be seen, and at the centre, the current commandant's arms. The new commander, Christoph Graf, will be sworn in on the 6th May, the anniversary of the Sack of Rome, when the flag will be used for the first time.

Get knitting!

The Heraldry Society of Scotland had a great talk last week on the Coats of Arms of Speakers of the House of Commons by Robert Harrison, who works in the House of Lords. Robert is not ashamed to show off his own coat of arms, as you can see:

Detectives wanted!

Yet again, there has been a theft, on Monday night, from the Thistle Chapel. The thief stole the stall-plate of Alexander Hugh Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh KT GCMG GCVO PC DL JP (1849 – 1921). Here is a picture of it so let us all keep an eye out on Ebay and in local cruio shops.

School heraldry: St Ninian's High School, Eastwood

One of Scotland's top state schools, St Ninian's celebrated its 30th birthday in 2014. Significantly, on its foundation, the Headmaster immediately applied to the Lyon Court for a grant of arms and they are rather splendid: 

"Azure a Celtic cross cantoned between in dexter chief a dove volant descendant and in sinister chief a book expanded Argent binding and fore-edges Gules in dexter base a crozier head contournée and in sinister base a crozier head Argent."

Hamilton Palace reconstructed

Hamilton Palace was demolished in the 1920s, largely because the coalmines which had provided successive dukes with much of their wealth were causing dangerous subsidence. Now much of the old drawing room, which had been dismantled and packed off to America, has been reassembled in the National Museum of Scotland.

Now the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) has created a virtual reconstruction of the Palace HERE.

Bank of Scotland Museum of the Mound

Two minutes' walk from Waverley Station is a fascinating museum you should not miss if you are in Edinburgh: the Bank of Scotland's Museum of the Mound. As well as a very interesting display of coinage and banknotes and as a history of Scotland's oldest bank, there is some good heraldry on display.

The bank's coat of arms, which dates from 1701, is a saltire (St Andrew's cross) for Scotland with gold circles or bezants in between the arms of the cross to suggest coins.

The last one is a very witty roll of winners of the Bank's gold competition with the bank's motto "Tanto uberior" - "so much more plentiful"

Tournament Melée

Here is a poster, painted by Mark Dennis, of a tournament melée as it might have appeared before King Robert the Bruce and Queen Elizabeth to celebrate the first birthday of their son, Prince David (late King David II) on 5th March 1325.

You can identify some of the participants from the key below: