InBrief

The College of Arms and the Court of Chivalry associated with it are the bodies responsible for administering and enforcing that most arcane branch of English law, the Law of Arms which we inherited along with much other English law. While claims to a current right to grant arms in Australia on the part of the College of Arms are contestable and the rights claimed are now inappropriate, it is undeniable that over the years the English Kings of Arms have granted arms to Australian bodies and individuals, including the Law Society of New South Wales and the New South Wales Bar Association, and several lawyers and judges.

The Australian Heraldry Society invites members of the New South Wales Bar Association to attend a lecture by one of the experts from the College of Arms, David White, Somerset Herald, to be held in Sydney on the evening of Thursday, 26 November 2015. This event will be held in the Mitchell Theatre at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts and is titled "Heraldry Across the Tasman: Early New Zealand Grantees of Arms". Including some forty illustrations largely taken from the records of the College of Arms, the lecture will show grants of arms made to New Zealanders from the 1860s until the 1940s. Examining the symbolism of the arms and discussing the motives of the grantees, parallels will be drawn with grants made to Australians in the same period. Full details of the lecture can be found here.