Officer of arms

An officer of arms is a person appointed by a sovereign or state with authority to perform one or more of the following functions: The medieval practice of appointing heralds or pursuivants to the establishment of a noble household is still common in European countries, particularly those in which there is no official heraldic control or authority.

Such appointments are also still made in Scotland, where four private officers of arms exist.

The legal basis for Ireland's heraldic authority, and therefore all grants since 1943, has been questioned by the Attorney General,[3] therefore, on 8 May 2006, Senator Brendan Ryan introduced the Genealogy & Heraldry Bill, 2006,[4] in Seanad Éireann (Irish Senate) to remedy this situation and legitimise actions since the transfer of power from the Ulster King of Arms.

[6] Like most other participants in the pageant, the officers of arms were no longer wearing ceremonial dress, but white tie instead.

In Scotland, the Lord Lyon King of Arms and the Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records control armorial matters within a strict legal framework not enjoyed by their fellow officers of arms in London, and the court which is a part of Scotland's criminal jurisdiction has its own prosecutor, the court's Procurator Fiscal, who is, however, not an officer of arms.