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The Old Grammarians’ Association 1902-2002
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It will not have gone unnoticed by those readers of the memorabilia
on this web site that the arms of Sir Walter St John are displayed
in a variety of forms. It might be helpful, therefore, to
put down a few words of explanation as regards authenticity.
Those who wish to take the matter further should read the
appendix on Sinjun Heraldry in Frank Smallwood's excellent
'A History of Sir Walter St John's School, Battersea 1700
- 1986'.
Where there is no record of a grant of arms by the College of Arms to an institution, such as a school, as is the case with the Sir Walter St John's Schools, Smallwood suggests that honour demands that the arms borne by the founder should be faithfully reproduced so that they would be clearly recognisable by Sir Walter himself. Fortunately a number of seventeenth century examples of the St John arms can be seen today in the truly remarkable east window of St Mary's Church, Battersea. An authentic reproduction of Sir Walter's arms appears on the cover of Smallwood's history referred to above (figure 1). |
Figure 1 |
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Figure 2 |
Figure 3 |
| Sir Walter chose also to display a cadency mark, a black (sable) crescent, on the dexter side of the escutcheon to indicate that he was from the second branch of the family. This was not really necessary since he was then the only St John with the rank of a baronet and could have relied on the escutcheon to provide the necessary identification. However his wife was a younger daughter and therefore was obliged to display a sable mullet to distinguish her from her elder sister.
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Sir Walter St. John's School (1886) Figure 4 |
Battersea Grammar School (1889) Figure 5
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BGS kept the depiction of its arms unchanged until 1940 when the arms shown in figure 6 first appeared on the school prize distribution programme. The school magazine is silent on the reason why this was done and who did the design. There are two points of particular interest. Sir Walter's cadency mark was placed below the escutcheon. It was understood in my day that this was done to distinguish the BGS arms from those of Sinjuns. The escutcheon correctly obtrudes slightly onto the chief, indicating that it was an added augmentation to the arms. But, unwittingly one hopes, the red hand of Ulster was used instead of the baronet's badge. There were also too many strawberry leaves depicted in the coronet. Interestingly the old design was retained on the school magazine cover (figure 7) until 1948. In that year 'The Old Grammarian' magazine was first published and it naturally featured the then new coat of arms, which the Old Grammarians continue to use to this day.
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Figure 6 |
Figure 7 |
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Another change to the BGS arms was made in 1959 (figure 8). Again no reasons for this are given in the magazine. The new design was by D Christie-Murray and D Escott who published a series of schools' arms including 'The Arms of Sir Walter St John's School and Battersea Grammar School' in handsome folders, with a detailed description, priced 2s. 6d. each. The correct baronets badge is used but the position of Sir Walter's cadency mark is incorrect for Sinjuns in that the crescent should be in the next position of honour in the shield, ie on the dexter side of the escutcheon (see figure 1). Moreover the wings of the falcon are not inverted but are shown 'elevated and addorsed' ie the wings are spread and back to back, tips upwards. I could find no such depictions in St Mary's. But as the creature is clearly a belled and jessed falcon 'rising' it would no doubt pass the Sir Walter St John recognition test.
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Figure 8
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As an aside, when in 1920, BGS introduced the white striped
black blazer it seems to have been agreed that Sinjuns would
use the St John shield as their breast pocket blazer badge
and BGS the falcon rising, wings displayed and inverted. This
latter was embroidered, dexter facing, in red with a gold
coronet. This was used until the new arms were introduced
in 1959 when Walter Langford adopted the elevated and addorsed
version, in gold for the BGS Upper School and in red for the
Lower School. And finally as regards school colours, early school photographs
show BGS boys wearing a tie with thick black and white horizontal
stripes. After the Great War boys were wearing a red and white
striped tie on a black ground. The school also had a Corps
tie which had an additional yellow/brown stripe. After the
Second World War house ties were introduced with an extra
stripe in the relevant house colour. In 1924 the Old Grammarians'
Association promulgated its colours (which we still use) of
old gold, white and red on a black ground, tinctures which
Sir Walter St John would readily recognise as being taken
from his arms. M F Poffley |
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