Badges and Devices

A company, society or institution normally uses a single logo as a branding device. The Richard III Society, however, has a number of devices which it uses in its publications, on this website and on merchandise and which are detailed below.

The Society’s Grant of Arms

The Society was granted by the College of Arms in 1989. The culmination of the grant was the formal presentation of the Letters Patent to the Patron, HRH The Duke of Gloucester, at the College of Arms on 27 June 1989 by Sir Colin Cole, Garter Principal King of Arms, and Mr John Brooke-Little, Norroy and Ulster King of Arms.

The Grant was made possible by a legacy left for the purpose by Lawrence Greensmith, a member of the Society who had died in 1986 and who contributed a long-running series to The Ricardian on coats of arms.

The Society feels the granting of the arms is particularly appropriate as the College of Arms was founded by King Richard III in 1484.

The Letters Patent displayed a number of devices which the Society uses, namely the Full Achievement of Arms, the Standard, the Boar Badge and the Shield.

The Armorial Bearings (Full Achievement)

The white boar with its left hoof placed on the globe represents the worldwide membership of the Society. The arms are used on the cover of the Society’s magazine, the Ricardian Bulletin.

For those interested in blazoning: the description of the Full Achievement in heraldic terminology, click here.

The Society’s Coat of Arms (the Shield)

Included on the shield are two crowned white roses.The white rose badge was used by some members of the House of York.

The Society’s Standard

This was granted at the same time and appears on the Letters Patent and can be used when the Society is present on a battlefield, but its more common use would be for it to be displayed at the AGM. In reality the Society does not have an actual standard it can fly.

The Boar Badge

The Society’s badge was granted with the arms. A heraldic badge may be used by followers of the badge’s owner and the Society’s has therefore been used as the design for a Society brooch and pendant.

Badges of Office

Badges of Office were commissioned in 2004 and the cost was born by the Society’s Vice Presidents. The design was based upon the full achievement of the Society and they were struck for the Patron, the President and the Chairman. Pins were also designed and produced for the Society’s Vice Presidents.

The Arms of Richard III
(his Full Achievement)

The arms were carved by Richard Epsom and presented to Crosby Hall in 1983. When the hall was sold into private ownership the arms were transferred to Warwick Castle.

Loyaulte me Lie Boar Badge

This was one of the earliest badges used by the Society after its re-founding in 1956. It was drawn for the Society by a freelance heraldic artist named Royman Browne. The wording on the scroll underneath the turf and boar is taken from a document in the British Library and is in King Richard’s own hand. The badge is used on the cover of the Society’s journal, The Ricardian.

The Piggy Badge

This charming badge was used by the Society’s founder S Saxon Barton and is the logo for the forthcoming History of the Society

The 50th Anniversary Logo

Other Devices

Geoffrey Wheeler has created a series of badges, based on the Boar Badge, to illustrate some of the section home pages for this website.


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