Help Wanted

There's a job opening as a herald if you have the right qualifications and apply for it.  The headline at Royal Central (http://www.royalcentral.co.uk/courtandsocial/the-queen-is-looking-for-a-new-lord-lyon-could-you-do-it-17876) pretty much said it all: "The Queen is looking for a new Lord Lyon."

David Sellars, the present Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland, is going to step down at the end of this December, after five years of holding the office.  So there's going to be a vacancy that you, perhaps, could fill.  It does, however, require knowledge of more than just heraldry, in that the Lord Lyon is the Judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon, which has jurisdiction over all heraldic matters in Scotland.  This is a real judicial court, and so a knowledge of the law would be extremely useful to have in this post.

The website at Scottish Courts gives a little more information about the necessary qualifications, as well as talking about some of the other functions of the office.

The site goes on to note that "Those interested in applying for the Office are invited to obtain an application form by contacting Jayne Milligan, Scottish Government, Civil Law and Legal System Division, 2W St Andrews House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG, telephone 0131 244 3051, or by email at Jayne.milligan@scotland.gsi.gov.uk."

If you are interested in applying, though, you'd better hurry.  Completed applications must reach Ms. Milligan by October 31.

The full notice of this vacancy can be found on Scottish Courts at http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/news/all-news/2013/10/18/the-office-of-lord-lyon-king-of-arms-vacancy


On a completely different note about this announcement, why is it that every news story I've seen about it shows a photograph of some of the heralds from the College of Arms in London?

Yes, they're at some ceremony and bearing their batons and wearing their tabards, which is very colorful and all, but all of the tabards show the English quarterings of the Royal Arms (England, Scotland, Ireland, and England) rather than the Scottish quarterings of the tabards worn by the Scottish heralds (Scotland, England, Ireland, and Scotland).  Really, you'd think that if they were going to do a story about the Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland, they'd at least get a photo of one or more Scottish heralds to go with it, and not members of the English College of Arms, wouldn't you?