Gules three leopards’ faces Argent with a martlet Or for difference
These are the arms of the Earls of Rosse ( Peerage of Ireland ) differenced for the Hon. Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, OM, KCB, FRS. He was born in London on 13 Jun 1854 the fourth and youngest son of the famous astronomer William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse.
Sir Charles developed the Parsons Turbine and then executed an “in your face” demonstration of its great speed & value with his 105′ yacht Turbinia at the Fleet review for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee at Portsmouth in June 1897 doing 34 knots weaving in and out of the ships of the fleet…none of the navy’s small boats could catch her… Admiral Fisher of the Royal Navy accepted the Parsons Turbine for use in the HMS Dreadnought in 1906 and then for the rest of the battleships and battlecrusiers building.
The yacht Turbinia has been preserved and is in the Discovery Museum in Newcastle.
Sir Charles was knighted with the KCB in 1911 and received the Order of Merit in 1927
and died on 11 Feb 1931 whilst on a cruise on board the steamship Duchess of Richmond
with his wife at age 76. An entry for him can be found on page 1504, volume 2 of
A. C. Fox Davies’ Armorial Families of 1930, 7th edition, published posthumously.
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor.
2019 0727
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