Dean is granted his official coat of arms
Monday, 24th September 2007
Garter King of Arms has granted the Dean, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall an official coat of arms which represents his work in education - latterly as the Church of England’s chief education officer - and also his geographical connections.
The ibis on top of the crest holds the torch of learning. The shield depicts fish in a net (reminiscent of Jesus’ words to his first disciples, “From now on you will be catching people”), part of the coat of arms of the National Society, a charity founded in 1811 to promote Christian education and now working with the Church of England’s Education Division.
The Latin inscription underneath reads Ut Omnes Discant (That They All Might Learn) which the Dean chose as his motto, from I Corinthians.
The badge incorporates both the red rose of Lancashire to represent the Dean’s time spent working in the Blackburn diocese and the white rose of Yorkshire to mark his family’s origins in that county.
The Dean said:
Many of my predecessors will have inherited their own family coat of arms.
It has been a pleasure working with Garter King of Arms to devise my own arms, which are full of meaning for me.
Whilst I am Dean, they are halved with the Abbey’s coat of arms, and as such appear now on the sleeve of the Dean’s Verger’s gown and will soon be fixed as a stall-plate to the Dean’s stall in the Lady Chapel.
My installation feels complete.
