A Recap of The Heraldry Society Virtual Quiz 2024

 The Society’s Virtual Christmas Quiz 2024

By Lance Sergeant David G Griffiths 86

 

On Saturday last – December 28^th – a number of us sat down behind our screens, some of us with a glass of Beaujolais, some with tea, coffee, others readying themselves by revising one of the many standard books, a Fairbarn here, a Fox-Davies there, but all ready to engage with the society’s end of year quiz.

  Myself and Paul Jagger, who are the presence on the society’s social media, hosted the evening alongside David Phillips, who members will know from our lectures live and virtual - he is the Programme Secretary. Attendance was entirely positive, and we aim to build on the success of the evening. We started off with an introduction by David Phillips and Paul Jagger, with Paul taking us through some ground rules and reminding attendees of ways we can all support the society’s important work.

  Then it was time to quiz!

  I fear that some people may be intimidated to join a quiz on heraldry; I know that, some years ago, I would have felt nervous myself. But we are a welcoming lot at the society, and the evening was much more about learning something new – which everyone did, I am sure – than it is about competition or the knowing or not knowing about something. At the end of the day, we all have that special area of interest in heraldry where we focus our attentions. 

  Our warm-up round, which Paul took us through, included questions on the identification of the practice used in the famous arms of Great Yarmouth, the answer being dimidiation. I was glad to see that one person identified it as ‘ridiculousness,’ which brought me much joy as I was marking the results. That round ended with a question about the office held by the father of William Bruges, the first Garter, and the answer being Lancaster King of Arms. 

  I then took over the pedals from Paul and took our little group through a round focused on people and remembered, I hope, for my atrocious and criminal pronunciations of certain foreign names – any other Welshmen or women out there who can pronounce Sir Falkes de Bréauté after a few glasses of wine, please do not hesitate to get in touch and educate me! 

  David Phillips took us through a round on places, featuring a question about the arms of Brest, in France, which were granted in 1696, a year described as an ‘important heraldic year.’ For those who do not know, the Nine Years’ War was raging in Europe at the time, and France, nearly bankrupt, issued an Edict imposing for the first time a cost to register any arms, a man called d’Hozier then catalogued as many as he could. The money made from the register of arms was used to power the mighty French war machine.

  Paul took us through a round on Antipodean heraldry – heraldry down under, in Australia and New Zealand – which was included within the quiz at Paul’s suggestion, it being especially relevant given Their Majesties’ recent visit to this part of the world. Amongst the questions was an identification question, the arms being a tremendously colourful achievement featuring, alongside many medals, a ship and a cat. The arms belonged, of course, to Dame Catherine Tizard. 

  Then came the final round, which included my trying to pronounce a lion demonstrating the attitude of rampant queue fourche, the actual answer being sejant rampant. An interesting question was asked in which quizzers were asked to identify which daughter of an armigerous man, in Canada, would bear a chess rook on their arms. The answer, for what reason I do not know, is the fifth daughter. The very last question was almost a nod to our new blog, which you are reading now, and asked quizzers which year the office of Carrick Pursuivant is dated from. Those of you who have read the blog will have seen our first article, a profile of Professor Gillian Black, Carrick Pursuivant, and know the answer to be 1364. 

  After the quiz was complete I slipped away to check the scores, which were a great mixture. After some quick mathematics the winners, which are listed below, were announced. 

  It was a great evening and a great way to see out what has been a great year for the Society. There will be another quiz in Easter, which will be a great event for those of you that are not members to see how we do things here, and we hope you can join us here. Our quizzes are not so much about who knows the most as they are about community, and living by the motto that ‘every day is a school day’ – we can always learn more; this is an educational charity, after all. 

  Thank you to everyone who joined in, and we look forward to seeing more of you at our next event. As a reminder, we have a recorded lecture in January, and our members-only annual lunch in February, where two lectures will be delivered, one by myself on heraldry in the Household Division, and another by Professor Gillian Black, Carrick Pursuivant.

 

We hope to see you there!

 

Winners: 

 

1^st – The Proper Mullets, who scored 33/35

2^nd – Gordon Casely, who scored 29/35

3^rd – Brian Ragen and Mitres & Mullets, who each tied with a score of 25/35