The Arms of the Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry
For some twenty years Bernard, as the Vice-Chairman - Heraldry, has been looking after the heraldic affairs of the B.M.S.G.H. As such he designed and nursed through the College of Arms a Coat of Arms to celebrate the success of the Society.
Taking as his starting point the Arms of the City of Birmingham (where the Society currently meets) which were, in turn, taken from the Arms of the de Bermingham family, Lords of the Manor, the Arms incorporate the elements and colours from those Arms as well as the three lozenges alluding to the three major counties of Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Worcester covered by the Society. The colours of blue and gold also reflect part of the City's (and the de Bermingham's) Arms. The way in which the shield is divided by a Tau Cross was unique in heraldry at the time. The "T" thus represented is an allusion to the family trees of genealogy. The use of ermine alludes to the colours of another branch of the de Bermingham family as well as to the Calthorps, a well-known Edgbaston family.
The Crest also mirrors the Arms of the City - again with the colours reflecting this - while the torch of learning which is held by the arm is also an allusion to the ragged staff of the Earls of Warwick and part of the Arms of the County of Warwickshire. We thus have a description of Birmingham in Warwickshire, which is where the Society is based. This is currently at the Birmingham & Midland Institute in Margaret Street q.v. and where three display panels show more graphically how the Arms were derived.
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