Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 3 on 5/7/2002.

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The Lyon King

Robin Blair, controversial new Lord Lyon King of Arms talks to Scotland Magazine. Words and pictures by James Carney

With a pedigree dating back to Robert the Bruce, the post of Lord Lyon King of Arms is more than just a job, it’s an institution and arguably
one of Scotland’s most venerable. The nation’s supreme authority on all matters heraldic and (almost) the last word on hereditary succession, Lyon – to give him his less formal moniker – is also responsible for organising the pomp and pageantry surrounding the Queen’s Scottish summer jaunts. But the Lyon has teeth and in recent years Marks & Spencer and Mohammed Al Fayed, among others, have been subject to his judicial wrath for misusing heraldry on their property.

Having arranged to interview Robin Blair, the new Lord Lyon, I was half expecting to be ushered in to a latter-day Camelot, resplendent with the trappings of rank and tradition. Imagine my disappointment then when I was shown into a rather spartan office in Edinburgh’s New Register House. There’s little to differentiate it from senior executive offices anywhere, save for the ostentatiously large golden lions on either side of the fireplace, looking for all the world like regal wally dugs fallen on hard times and waiting for a grander mantlepiece to sit on.

Having risen rapidly to the rank of Minister of the Crown and Judge of the Realm, Robin Blair has no obvious airs. Greeting me with a firm handshake and the precise diction of the educated Anglo-Scot, he directs me to a seat across an expansive desk like a friendly bank manager who’s invited me for a chat about my overdra.....

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By James Carney

Section : Scottish Heraldry

Page number : 56