Page 64 - Archived Back Issues

Worshipful Company of Firefighters honours LFB Heroes
Coats of arms have been and still are granted by Letters Pat- ent from the senior heralds, the Kings of Arms. A right to arms can only be es-
tablished by the
registration in
the official re-
cords of the Col-
lege of Arms of a
pedigree show-
ing direct male
line descent from
an ancestor already appearing therein as entitled to arms, or by making application through the College of Arms for a grant of arms. Grants are made to corporations as well as to indi- viduals.
National Treasures saved from Fire
Our City and our nation came very close to losing much of our heritage when fire threatened to destroy the College of Arms in the City of Lon- don last year.
The College, which was built 1671-88, is located in Queen Victoria
Street, London on land bequeathed to the Heralds by Queen Mary Tudor in in 1555. The original building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London.
The site is the official repository for Coats of Arms and the pedigrees of English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Commonwealth families. It also contains the records of the Coats of Arms for all our City Livery Companies. The library contains a diverse collection of resources both old and new, including parchment manuscripts, ancient seals, books and periodicals. As Trustees and custodians of our nation’s rich heritage, conservation of these artefacts and materials is an im- portant but costly part of the College's work.
These most precious of records were threatened when a fire was dis- covered on the 4th floor and which quickly spread to the roof. Fol- lowing an alarm ,fire crews from Southwark and Dowgate fire sta- tions were quickly on the scene led by Incident Commander, Steve Smith.
In realising the significance of the building and its contents, Steve decided on a coordi- nated approach using BA crews to tackle the fire from within, whilst minimal water jets,
applied externally from aerial appliances, kept water damage to a minimum.
Working with the College curator to try to preserve the historical manuscripts, Steve and his team established a functional damage control centre, identifying and prioritising the most valuable items before moving them to safety. Simultaneously, the support crews focused on stopping the fire from spreading and protecting the lower parts of the building.
In acknowledging the professionalism of the fire team, the Garter King of Arms confirmed that the treas- ures of the City and of our Livery Companies had undoubtedly been saved due to their promptness and efficiency.
Fire, which had once ravaged and destroyed our City, had this time been defeated from robbing us once again of the records of our heritage. In acknowledging the immeasurable debt of gratitude that was owed to Steve and his Crew, the Worshipful Company of Firefighters decided that such actions should not go overlooked or unrecorded. On behalf of all the Livery Companies, we agreed to present Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Smith with a special Commendation and Citation, which he duly agreed to accept on behalf of the attendant crews and the London Fire Brigade. The occasion for the presentation was to be the prestigious Massey Shaw Dinner.