Arms: Or, growing out of a mound between two leaves three thistle stalks Vert blossomed Purpure all conjoined in base, alighting on the middle blossom a honeybee Or and Sable winged Argent.
These are the arms of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York who inherited them from her father, Major Ronald Ivor Ferguson, who received them in a grant from the College of Arms (COA). This Ferguson family are English so its natural they would go to the COA for arms.
However, it has been put to me by knowledgeable sources that Sarah Ferguson’s father, Major Ferguson, applied to the COA for arms based on a crested signet ring he had worn for years with the crest of a bee on a thistle. He had no arms, so the crest was not his to use; it was in fact the crest of Fergusson of Kilkerran, Chief of the name in Scotland.
In any event, the COA produced the design of these arms which are now borne by the Duchess of York. It might be said however, that these arms do look Scottish…
The artwork is a rendition by John Hamilton Gaylor.
2020 0626
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