Elizabeth Roads
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Elizabeth Ann Roads, MVO (born 1951) is Carrick Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary and Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records for the Court of the Lord Lyon.
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[edit] Personal life and education
Elizabeth Roads is the daughter of LtCol James Bruce MC and his wife Mary Hope Sinclair. As evidenced by her coat of arms, Roads is an indeterminate cadet of King Robert the Bruce of Scotland. She was born in 1951 and educated at Lansdowne House, Edinburgh, Cambridgeshire College of Technology, and the Study Centre for Fine Art in London. She married Christopher Roads in 1983, and they have two sons, Timothy, and William.
[edit] Heraldic career
Elizabeth Roads joined the staff of the Court of the Lord Lyon in 1975 and was appointed Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records in 1986. In this position, she maintains, among other things, the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland. She was appointed Linlithgow Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary in 1987 and became the first woman to be appointed a royal officer of arms. This was a temporary appointment, when she represented the Lord Lyon in Canada in the discussions that led to the establishment of the Canadian Heraldic Authority. Roads was appointed Carrick Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary in 1992.
As Elizabeth Bruce, Roads was a founder member of the Heraldry Society of Scotland in 1977. She was Chairman of that Society in the late 1990s and is now a Fellow of the Heraldry Society of Scotland and of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada. She has published many articles on heraldic and genealogical subjects.
[edit] Honours and appointments
- 1977-Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal
- 1986-Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records
- 1987-Linlithgow Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary
- 1990-Member of the Royal Victorian Order
- 1992-Carrick Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary
- 1998- Officer of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem
- 2002-Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal
[edit] Coat of arms
Elizabeth Roads uses a cadet version of the coat of arms of her father on an oval. The blazon of the arms is: Or a Saltire Gules on a Chief Gules a Pale Argent charged of a Cross engrailed Sable overall a Bordure Or. Above the shield is placed a crest which is blazoned: From a Wreath of Or and Gules a dexter Arm in armour embowed the hand proper grasping a broken Sceptre Gules. The motto is shown on a scroll over the crest and is “SIC FUIMUS”.
