The Letters Patent.
Being elaborately illuminated on vellum (measuring 60 X 52cm, or 23.75 X 20.50″) with exceptionally executed hand-painted renditions of the Arms of the Sovereign Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Arms of the Earl Marshal (His Grace Edward William Fitzalan-Howard, the 18th Duke of Norfolk, Hereditary Marshal and ‘First Peer of the Realm’, and Head of Her Majesty’s College of Arms) and the Arms of Her Majesty’s College of Arms, the Letters Patent also feature the crowned Arms of Office of the granting Kings of Arms: Thomas Woodcock, Garter Principal King of Arms; Patric Laurence Dickinson, Clarenceux (pronounced Klar-ran-Soo) King of Arms, and Timothy Hugh Stewart Duke, Norroy and Ulster King of Arms.
Her Majesty the Queen is the ‘Fount of Honour’ from whom all titles, grants of arms, orders of chivalry and honours are conferred; they are the Sovereign’s gift and prerogative.
Under English heraldic law, a coat of arms and armorial ensigns can be granted by Officers of Her Majesty’s College of Arms to persons of eminence or good standing in national or local life and for exceptional service to society at large.
Appointed by the Sovereign Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Officers of the College of Arms are delegated authority to act on behalf of the Crown in all matters of heraldry: the granting of new coats of arms, genealogical research and the recording of pedigrees.
The Earl Marshal is the head of Her Majesty’s College of Arms and no coat of arms or other armorial ensigns may be granted without his Warrant.
As with the creation of my Coat of Arms, Crest, Badge and Standard, I worked closely with York Herald over a period of some months in the design and creation of the Letters Patent to ensure they would be not only aesthetically pleasing, but characteristic of me, symbolically meaningful, personal and purposeful.
The Letters Patent are ornately embellished, finely accentuated and flawlessly scrivened in the finest tradition of medieval manuscript illumination with a decorative border of fauna and flora that honours my parents.
FAUNA: Dexter base a compartment thereon a Stag proper statant to sinister; this is to honour my father and alludes to the archaeogenetic and ancient origins of the family Helon – Scythia. Sinister base a compartment thereon a Lion proper; this is to honour my mother and alludes to her place of birth, Kenya. Blue Wrens and Red-Capped Robins, my favourite birds, adorn the borders throughout.
FLORA: Ornamenting the borders are yellow Sunflowers in bloom, the favourite flower of my late father; red and white Roses in bloom, the favourite flowers of my mother, and my favourite flower – the blue Agapanthus.
Together with the Arms, Crest, Badge, the exemplification of a heraldic Standard (which confers permission to have one manufactured and flown), the inclusion of the Motto AVORUM HONORI (‘For the Honour of Our Ancestors’), is the Grant and Blazon engrossed by a scrivener.
Finally, the Letters Patent are duly signed by each granting King of Arms and sealed with their respective red Bee’s Wax Seals of Office enclosed in skippets (gold-tone screw-lid containers) properly suspended from the vellum with blue grosgrain ribbons.
And as to why some grants of armorial ensigns are signed and sealed by three of Her Majesty’s Kings of Arms and others by only two of the Officers of Arms, I have been reliably informed by York Herald that this perceived differencing has evolved over the centuries and does not make one grant any lesser than any other:
“Grants to individuals living in the UK always have two granting Kings (of Arms): the one for the province they are in (north or south of the River Trent) and Garter King of Arms who has to be a granting King (of Arms) on all grants. Corporate bodies and individuals living outside the UK do not fall within either of the provincial Kings of Arms’s provinces – so both Kings (of Arms) have to grant, as well as Garter” (York Herald, August 2020).
CLICK HERE to learn more about my Coat of Arms and its symbolism.
Transcript of the Letters Patent:
TO ALL AND SINGULAR to whom these Presents shall come Thomas Woodcock Esquire Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Garter Principal King of Arms Patric Laurence Dickinson Esquire Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order Clarenceux King of Arms and Timothy Hugh Stewart Duke Esquire Norroy and Ulster King of Arms Send Greeting! Whereas GEORGE WILLIAM HELON of Schultz Street Kearneys Spring Toowoomba Region in the State of Queensland in the Commonwealth of Australia Esquire Justice of the Peace for the said State who was born Wiesław George Helon at Bridgnorth in the County of Shropshire the Twenty-third day of November 1965 the son of Zbigniew Helon of Wombourne in the County of Stafford formerly of Pawłow in the County of Radziechów in Tarnopol Voivodeship in the Republic of Poland hath represented unto The Most Noble Edward William Duke of Norfolk Earl Marshal that he is desirous of having Armorial Ensigns established under lawful authority and duly recorded in Her Majesty’s College of Arms and hath requested therefore the favour of His Grace’s Warrant for Our granting and assigning such Arms and Crest and in the same Patent such Device or Badge as We deem suitable to be borne and used by him and his descendants with due and proper differences and according to the Laws of Arms And forasmuch as the said Earl Marshal did by Warrant under his hand and Seal bearing date the Fourteenth day of May 2019 authorize and direct Us to grant and assign such Arms and Crest and in the same Patent such Device or Badge accordingly Know Ye therefore that We the said Garter Clarenceux and Norroy and Ulster in pursuance of His Grace’s Warrant and by virtue of the Letters Patent of Our several Offices granted by The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty to each of Us respectively do by these Presents grant and assign unto the said GEORGE WILLIAM HELON the Arms following that is to say : – Gules an Eagle displayed Argent attached to each foot by a manacle a broken chain the wings surmounting on either side a Scroll palewise Or And for the Crest Upon a Helm with a Wreath Argent and Gules – Perched on the top of a Tower Gules a Rufous Owl affronty displayed proper supporting with the wing tips a Boomerang Or Mantled Gules doubled Argent And by the Authority aforesaid We do further grant and assign the following Device or Badge that is to say: – A Turtle palewise Azure charged on the shell with a Sprig of Golden Wattle Or as are all in the margin hereof more plainly depicted to be born and used forever hereafter by the said George William Helon and his descendants with due and proper differences and according to the Laws of Arms In witness whereof We the said Garter Clarenceux and Norroy and Ulster have to these Presents subscribed Our names and affixed the Seals of Our several Offices this Seventh day of May in the Sixty-ninth year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth the Second by the Grace of God Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories Head of the Commonwealth and in the year of Our Lord Two thousand and twenty.
Thomas Woodcock – Garter | P.L. Dickinson – Clarenceux | Timothy Duke – Norroy and Ulster
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