Thanks to the encouragement of people who read last year’s list I can provide the most complete alphabet since 2015. I have enjoyed researching and compiling these alphabets.
Again, I’ve tried to produce a varied mixture of arms. They cover over 700 years and go all around the world, though I am disappointed that I’ve not been able to include armigers of more varied ethnic backgrounds.
In English and Scottish heraldry unmarried women display their arms on a lozenge. Here I’ve shown them on shields for aesthetic purposes.
Several terms I use are:
Assumed – arms adopted officially.
Family arms – arms of the head of the family. Each family member should add a cadency mark to show which son or daughter they are (i.e. eldest, second, third, etc.). In England they don’t need to register their cadenced arms, and women need only show their father’s cadency. In Scotland each family member must matriculate a new coat of arms based on their father’s.
Impaled – two coats of arms placed side by side on one shield. A method of displaying the arms of a married couple or someone’s arms of office (e.g a bishop or mayor).
Matriculate – to officially register a coat of arms, principally applicable in Scotland.
B) Mary Blathwayt (1879-1961), suffragette; family arms bearing the cadency mark of a third son (star) as borne by her grandfather. The family arms were first recorded in 1690 for Mary’s ancestor William Blathwayt, MP.
C) Olive Custance (1874-1944), poet; inherited family arms, probably first used by her ancestor Hambleton Custance (d.1757). After several lesbian affairs Olive married Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde’s old boyfriend, after which she could display her arms on a small shield in the middle of his (as her father’s only child and heraldic heir). Their children could, consequently, place the Custance arms as a quarter on their arms.
D) Natalie de Clare, Countess of Markland (b.1975); personal arms registered by the South African Bureau of Heraldry in 2016. The design incorporates the red chevrons of the medieval de Clare family from whom the countess descends.
E) Nicholas Eden, 2nd Earl of Avon (1930-1985), government minister; family arms inherited from his father, former Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon. These arms have been used by the Eden family since the 1600s.
F) Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), philosopher; probably assumed arms. I’ve only recently begun to research these arms. Ficino drew them on a manuscript dated 1455. The arms of his pupil’s family, Francesco Cattari da Diaceto, differ only in the substitution of a white stripe for the sword. It is unclear if Ficino assumed his similar design as the Cattari family or was influenced by it.
H) Jennifer Hilton, Baroness Hilton of Eggardon (b.1936); personal grant. See here.
I) Sir Charles Irving (1924-1996), MP; arms of office, being those of the borough of Cheltenham granted by the College of Arms in 1877. Sir Charles could assume these arms during his two terms of office as mayor. He was granted personal arms in 1991 which I have not yet researched.
J) Greville Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone (1928-2015), ex-MP; personal arms granted by the College of Arms in 1997. Green and red represent the Houses of Commons and Lords respectively.
K) Capt. Martin Oranmore Kirwan (1847-1904), 5th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers; inherited family arms, Capt. Kirwan was heir to Cregg Castle, Co. Galway.
L) Most Rev. Roger LaRade, Primate Archbishop of the Eucharistic Catholic Church (ECC) in Canada; personal arms of office as authorised by the ECC. The arms of the ECC appear at the top of the shield. The Archbishop’s personal arms, assumed following his appointment as archbishop in 2005, are beneath.
N) Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), scientist; inherited family arms, originally assumed, with permission given by the College of Arms in 1634. They were used by various Newton families since the 15th century.
O) Charles George Oates (1844-1902), barrister; personal arms, being the inherited family arms of his father with Charles’ cadency mark as a third surviving son (a star).
P) Richard Püller von Hohenburg (d.1482), knight (to be featured in a future “80 Gays” article); inherited family arms, used by his paternal ancestors since before 1300.
Q) Lt. Cmdr. Michael J. Quigley (b.1970), US Navy, Counter-terrorism officer; personal honorary grant from the College of Arms in 2012. Based on the arms of the Quigleys of County Donegal.
R) Hon. Nancy Ruth (b.1942), Canadian Senator 2005-17; inherited family arms, being those granted by the College of Arms to her father in 1955. (Note: Nancy Ruth does not use her family name but prefers to be known by her first names together. This means she should really be placed under “N”. I placed her arms under “R” because I had already chosen who to place under “N”, and had no-one for “R”.)
T) Jaci Taylor (b.1945), Mayor of Aberystwyth 2000-1; arms of office, being the arms granted to the borough of Aberystwyth by the College of Arms in 1961 and transferred to the town council in 1975. Jaci could assume these arms during her term of office.
V) Ole von Beust (b.1955), President of the German Bundesrat 2007-8 (to be featured in a future “80 Gays” article); inherited family arms dating from before 1300.
W) Horace Walpole (1717-1797), writer, 4th Earl of Orford; inherited family arms. Until he inherited the title in 1791 Horace would have used his cadency mark of a third son (a star). Walpole featured in an “80 Gays” article earlier this year.
Y) Will Young (b.1979), singer and actor; family arms as suggested by Jeffrey Poole in “An Illustrated General Armory of South Australia”. Poole lists these arms as those of Sir Henry Young (1803-1870), Governor of Tasmania, Will’s ancestor. They are also the arms of the baronets of North Dean, Buckinghamshire, though I have yet to establish a precise family relationship.
Z) St. Zosima of Siberia (1767-1833), monk and Russian Orthodox saint; probable inherited family arms, being those of the family of Verkhovsky of Kostroma in Russia to which the saint belonged.
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