An Armorial Stained Glass Window

During my recent trip to Victoria, British Columbia, the members of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada were treated to a visit to Government House, the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

And one of the treats that we saw while there was this large heraldic stained glass window:

I recommend clicking on the image above to see the full-size version of this picture.

At the center of the upper part of the window you can see the achievement of arms of Canada, above which is the arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland within the garter of the Order of the Garter and royally crowned, between the initials "E R", for Queen Elizabeth II.

The arms of Canada are flanked on the left by the arms of the United Kingdom, and on the right by the arms of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Here's an image of the Hudson's Bay Company arms that I took on my previous trip to Victoria way back in 2007.

But I digress.

In the center of the lower part of the window we find the achievement of arms of British Columbia, flanked on the left by the old arms of the Dominion of Canada (which are a shield combining the arms of the then-seven Provinces), and on the right by the arms of Canada as established in 1921 and as they are now.

Once again, I highly recommend that you click on the picture of the window to get to the larger version where you can see all of these arms more clearly.

Later, we'll look at some of the other coats of arms that are to be found in this lovely work of stained glass.