Bureau of Heraldry's 50th anniversary

[Arthur Radburn]

Happy anniversary to the Bureau of Heraldry!



Today is the Bureau of Heraldry's 50th birthday. I don't know if any celebrations are being planned, but the anniversary did at least rate a mention by the Deputy Minister of Arts & Culture in his department's budget speech in parliament a couple of weeks ago.

"There are many highlights in its fifty years of existence," he said, "including the design of the National Flag we all embrace today, and the transformation of all national symbols, including the symbols of parliament."

There's far more to the Bureau than that, of course. To date, it has registered nearly 4000 arms, badges, and flags, many of which it designed. It has also recorded around 1000 defence force badges, flags, and unit coats of arms. Some of our IAAH members have registered their arms at the Bureau, and so has the IAAH itself :



An interesting account of the Bureau's innovative approach can be found in Frederick Brownell's presentation at the 22nd International Congress of Genealogical & Heraldic Sciences in 1996, which is available on Google Books :
http://books.google.co.za/books?id=8Sjt ... 22brownell

I have images of various other Bureau-designed/registered arms which I can post if anyone is interested.

[J Duncan of Sketraw]

It would be good for members to have access to a larger version of the IAAH grant of arms for their own files. Do we know who holds the original grant?

[Martin Goldstraw]

The arms were granted to the Association of Amateur Heralds and as far as I am aware the original is held by the founder of the AAH Stephen Madewell. If this is indeed the case then for reasons which are best consigned to the dustbin of history Stephen no longer has any contact with the AAH's sucessor the International Association of Amateur Heralds so it unlikely that the original will ever see the light of day.

[Arthur Radburn]

I saved this image from the old IAAH website a couple of years ago. It doesn't appear to be on the current website, but perhaps there is something in an archive directory.