Wilfrid Scott-Giles

Wilfrid Scott-Giles

Charles Wilfred Scott-Giles (1893–1982) was an English officer of arms.[1]

Charles Wilfrid Giles was educated at Emanuel School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he read history between 1919 and 1922.[1] Initially he worked on the parliamentary staff of the Press Association before being appointed as secretary of the Institution of Municipal and County Engineers in 1928.[2]

In July 1928 he assumed the surname "Scott-Giles".[3]

He became a leading authority on heraldry, and wrote a number of books and articles on the subject. These included:

  • The Romance of Heraldry (1929)
  • Civic Heraldry of England and Wales (1933, 2nd edition 1953)
  • Shakespeare's Heraldry (1950)[4]
  • Boutell's Heraldry (2nd revised edition) (1954)
  • The siege of Caerlaverock rendered into rime (1960)
  • Heraldry in Westminster Abbey (1961)
  • Motley Heraldry (1962)
  • Looking at Heraldry (1967)

He also wrote the standard history of his alma mater, Sidney Sussex College, published in 1951.

He prepared The Wimsey Family: A Fragmentary History Compiled from Correspondence With Dorothy L. Sayers (Gollancz, 1977). In another association with Sayers, Scott-Giles prepared the diagrams and maps illustrating Sayers' translation of Dante's Divine Comedy.[5]

Scott-Giles was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and in 1957 became Fitzalan Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary.[6] In 1970 he was awarded the Julian Bickersteth Memorial Medal by the trustees and council of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies.[7]

Scott-Giles was also credited, by John Brooke-Little, as being the initial creator of the concept and name of The White Lion Society.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b "Obituary: Mr C. W. Scott-Giles, Influential writer on heraldic matters". The Times: p. 14. 12 March 1982. 
  2. ^ "News in Brief". The Times: p. 11. 27 July 1928. 
  3. ^ London Gazette: no. 33433. p. 6984. 26 October 1928.
  4. ^ Smith, Robert M (July 1950). "Review: Shakespeare's Heraldry". Shakespeare Quarterly (Folger Shakespeare Library) 1 (3): 1823–184. JSTOR 2866427. 
  5. ^ Dante Alighieri. The Comedy of Dante Alighieri the Florentine. Tr. Dorothy L. Sayers. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 3 vols: Hell (1949); Purgatory (1955); Paradise (1962).
  6. ^ London Gazette: no. 41163. p. 5101. 30 August 1957.
  7. ^ "Heraldic Award". The Times: p. 12. 16 March 1970. 
  8. ^ White Lion Society website


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