Sep-05 Issue - The Heraldry Society

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2 CRANWELL HERALDRY PART ONE: THE ROYAL AIR FORCE BADGE Ceremonial Gates Cranwell Avenue Portico With the recent painting of the wrought-iron gates, and the re-gilding of the badges which adorn them, the Ceremonial Entrance to the Royal Air Force College has been restored to a state in which it would have been seen when College Hall was officially opened in 1934. By then the College had its own coat of arms but it was the badge of the Royal Air Force which was chosen for the gates, and the Cranwell version is made all the more impressive by the ‘oversized’ eagle that flies out from the circlet and crown, which together complete the design. The Royal Air Force badge came into use in August 1918, when the circlet took the form of a garter and buckle. But in heraldry, this proved to be incorrect and it was replaced by a plain circlet when the badge was registered at the College of Arms on 26 January 1923. During the reigns of George V, Edward VIII and George VI the Tudor Crown had surmounted the circlet. But it seems that the crown, the circlet and the eagle were subject to a wide range of variations with regard to style, composition and proportion, and it was not until 1949 that the design was standardised. From that date, the ‘oversized’ eagles, which dominate the badges on the gates of the College, gave way to a smaller version that dissects the circlet; in the form seen on the porticos, erected on Cranwell Avenue in 1997. The description of the Royal Air Force badge was promulgated in Air Ministry Orders A.666/49, which were published on 15 September 1949, and it reads: “In front of a circle inscribed with the motto, ‘Per Ardua Ad Astra’, and ensigned with the Imperial Crown, an eagle volant and affronté, the head lowered and to the sinister”. By choosing the motto of the Royal Flying Corps and the emblem of the Royal Naval Air Service, it seems that the Air Council’s original intention was to demonstrate a clear lineage for the Royal Air Force; and yet these elements of the new badge have long given rise to conjecture and debate. The most persistent debate is to do with the emblem, which is supposed by some to be an albatross, because of its association with the Royal Naval Air Service. But it is precisely because of its association with the Royal Naval Air Service that the emblem is an eagle. In his book ‘Airmen or Noahs’, published by Pitman in 1928, Rear-Admiral Murray Sueter attributed the choice of the Royal Naval Air Service emblem to an item of jewellery owned by his wife. In a footnote he states, “Mr Winston Churchill wanted an eagle for a badge to be worn on the sleeve of the coat to distinguish the naval airmen. An artist was sent for and he produced a design like a goose. But Mrs Sueter had a gold eagle Items for inclusion in the Gazette post to: The Editor, The Heraldry Gazette, at the address given on page 10, or e-mail to: gazette@theheraldrysociety.com
ooch of French Imperial design that she had purchased in Paris. I took this eagle brooch to the Admiralty to show Mr Churchill and Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg. They much preferred it to the goose design of the artist and adopted it for the badge of the Royal Naval Air Service.” The Royal Naval Air Service came into being on 1 July 1914, and the initial dress regulations were promulgated in Admiralty Weekly Order No 2, where there is a first official reference to the emblem of the navy’s new air arm: “The badge of an eagle will be worn by members of the Royal Naval Air Service at the top left sleeve”. Later, when it was felt that aircrew should be further differentiated, Admiralty Weekly Order 756/16, of 21 April 1916, stated that in addition to the eagle on the left sleeve a further eagle should be worn on the left shoulder strap. Then, on 8 June 1917, in Admiralty Weekly Order 2106/17, aircrew were required to wear the eagle on both sleeves and both shoulder straps. With so many references to the eagle, there can be no doubt as to its use by the Royal Naval Air Service, or to its subsequent use by the newly-formed Royal Air Force, which adopted the rank badges of the Royal Naval Air Service and the rank titles of the Royal Flying Corps. As such, a lieutenant colonel wore “three rows of distinguishing lace surmounted by bird (sic) and crown”, the latter being similar to the badge on an officer’s field service cap of today. It was not until 27 August 1919 that an Air Council Order replaced army titles of rank with Royal Air Force titles of rank, and consigned the ‘bird and crown’ device from the sleeve to the shoulder strap. Having used Admiralty Orders to establish that the Royal Naval Air Service emblem was an eagle, and Air Ministry Orders to confirm that the eagle had been adopted by the Royal Air Force, it would seem that these same orders could be used to reveal the genesis of the albatross debate. From 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force undertook all Service flying training, and detached some of its air and ground crews for service with the Royal Navy. In April 1924 these detachments were designated the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force. Soon afterwards, naval officers began to train as pilots with the Royal Air Force, and they then joined its fleet air arm: but the Admiralty decided to award its own flying badge. So, when Admiralty Fleet Order No 2793 was issued, on 2 October 1925, it described the new badge for navy pilots as: “A silver anchor and cable of silver embroidery surrounded by a laurel wreath of silver embroidery superimposed on the wings of an albatross”. So, with the albatross attributed to the Royal Navy of 1925, and the eagle established as the emblem of the Royal Air Force from 1918, attention now turns to the motto which is inscribed on the circlet. Having been approved by George V, ‘Per Ardua Ad Astra’ was promulgated as the motto for the Royal Flying Corps in Army Order No 3, on 15 March 1913. The motto had been suggested by Lieutenant J S Yule, of the Royal Engineers, who discovered the words in Sir Henry Rider Haggard’s novel ‘The People of the Mist’. In the first chapter there is a description of “two stone pillars on whose summit stood griffins of black marble embracing coats of arms and banners inscribed with the device Per Ardua Ad Astra”. According to Group Captain A H Stradling in his ‘Customs of the Services’, published by Gale and Polden in 1966, Rider Haggard’s source was the Irish family of Mulvany, whose motto it had been for centuries. But its meaning was in dispute. According to Squadron Leader P G Herring, in his ‘Customs and Traditions of the Royal Air Force’, published by Gale and Polden in 1961, the Mulvany family understood the meaning of the motto to be “Through Difficulties to the Skies”, whilst Rider Haggard believed it to be “Through Struggle to the Stars”. Seeking literal meaning of the motto, the Air Ministry approached the College of Arms, who declared that no authoritative translation was possible. So in the words of a contemporary postscript by the Air Council Member for Personnel, “Let everyone translate it as they think fit”. Group Captain P J Rodgers MBE FRAeS RAF (Retd) Items for inclusion in the Gazette: post to the Editor, The Heraldry Gazette, at the address given on page 10 or by e-mail to gazette@theheraldrysociety.com 3
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Sep-05 Issue - The Heraldry Society

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