2013 Magazine - Royal Caledonian Ball

One of the joys of the role, and there are
very many, is to work with families and
Clans who have lost their Head or Chief.
Last year Lyon asked me to work with the
MacEwan and Ewing families to help them
choose who they want as their
Representative. The great Clan Donald has
embarked on a search for the missing Heads
of its Branches, and I am hopeful that in
New Zealand we may have found the senior
representative of the MacDonalds of
Glencoe.
As well as these private duties, we also have
formal public duties. We attend the annual
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
to support the Lord High Commissioner
who is appointed as The Queen's
Representative for the week of the
Assembly. In the summer we attend The
Queen if she holds a service for the Order
of the Thistle (as she did last year when
HRH The Duke of Cambridge joined the
Order).
Every three years of so we help install the
new governor of Edinburgh Castle, and
when there is to be a General Election, we
march down the Royal Mile from the Signet
Library to the Mercat Cross – accompanied
by trumpeters and a military escort - where
Lyon will read the Writ of Dissolution to
announce that there will be an election. We
also participate in the Opening of the
Scottish Parliament, in part recreating the
ceremonial observed pre 1707. But, not all
our public duties are ancient. Together with
the English and Canadian Heralds we
escorted The Queen down the Thames as
part of the Jubilee River Pageant in London
last June, which was damp, but awe
inspiring.
In the absence of the Sovereign our public
role is to represent Her Authority; in the old
19
days we were essentially diplomats and
enforcers of The Royal Will, who would
often try to make peace before battle and
pick up the pieces afterwards. Today our
role is mainly ceremonial, but we add colour
and keep these traditions alive.
We are part of the great tapestry of Scottish
life, representing old traditions and
protecting legal rights whether long held or
recently granted. But we are also a modern
and forward looking body, working to adapt
the art and science of heraldry to the
demands and expectations of today's
Scotland. It is a hugely enjoyable role, and
together with Lyon and my brother and
sister Officers, Rothesay, Snowdoun,
Ormond, Dingwall and Unicorn, I think we
add a bit of colour in a sometimes dreich
nation.”
(With thanks to Richard Bath of the Scots
Magazine in which a version of this interview was
originally published).
The heraldic badge of the
Marchmont Herald of Arms