Left: The old King's College coat of arms at the library steps (Photo: Justin Tan); Centre: The current coat of arms in the A&A building (Photo: Justin Tan); Right: An archived copy of Tidings from King's Vol. VII No. 7, Summer 1968 issue (original photographs by Wambolt-Waterfield) (Photo: Catherine Burgess)
The case of the missing crest
King's coat of arms used to be inlaid on the A&A building's floor, but for some reason was removed in the early '90s.
(0)University of King's College students know the university coat of arms well. They see a stained glass version of it every time they walk up the stairs in the Arts and Administration building. However, most students these days don't know that the coat of arms used to be displayed in an even more prominent place in their school.
The King's crest was once featured on the floor of the main building's lobby. According to archived editions of Tidings, the King's alumni magazine, King's installed a floor crest in the main foyer during renovations in the summer of 1968, along with updates such as new tiled floors and glass doors for the front entrance. The crest became a source of pride for students.
However, somewhere in the midst of renovations to the school during the late eighties and early nineties, the inlaid coat of arms was removed and never replaced.
The reason the crest was removed remains elusive. Possible reasons include renovations, floor damage or cost.
Slideshow
Gallery of Haligonian university crests, with brief histories and crest symbol descriptions
Dr. Wayne Hankey, Carnegie professor of classics and chairman of Dalhousie University's Department of Classics, has devoted a considerable amount of time to King's. He studied at the university and then became the founding director of the Foundation Year Programme. He was also a librarian at the university.
"I'm sure there was nothing significant in the act," Dr. Hankey said about the crest's removal in an interview on Tuesday.
Dr. Hankey said he does not recall any outcry over the removal of the inlaid coat of arms. He said it was probably removed during a needed replacement of the lobby floor.
Source of pride
King's student Stephanie Duchon says an inlaid crest would make a suitable graduating class gift, acknowledging the sun dial outside the library as an example from years past. "My only concern would be damage which is probably why it was removed in the first place," Duchon says.
The floor crest nearly made its return in 2008 when the Grad Class Committee was considering potential gifts to the university. However, the idea of reinstalling the King's crest in the A&A floor was believed to be too costly, and the gift would instead be the stained glass window that students see at the top of the main lobby staircase today.
"I think King's has such powerful school spirit that people would probably get excited about it," King's student Phoebe Mannell says of an inlaid crest returning to the A&A building. "We're so excited about that sort of thing all the time. But I think the university is in such dire straits that it's probably not a smart fiscal choice."
Dr. Hankey says he does not miss the crest, but he expresses his fondness of the old university coat of arms. "I'd love to see the old crest back," he says.
Old and new
That "old crest" is in reference to an original King's College crest that was designed by King's students in 1870. In 1962, investigators determined that the crest was "incorrect", because it had never been officially sanctioned.
In 1964, the College of Arms in London granted King's a new coat of arms. However, King's president at the time, Dr. H.D. Smith, noticed an error in the new coat of arms. The Latin motto, which should read, "Deo Legi Regi Gregi" (For God, Law, King, People), had been incorrectly ordered, placing the monarch, "Regi," before the law, "Legi." Corrected and approved in 1966, the new crest was inlaid in the university's floor two years later.
The old crest can still be seen at King's, over the library entrance.
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