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HISTORY OF THE

OFFICER OF ARMS ATTENDANT ON THE KNIGHTSCOMMANDERS, AND COMPANIONS.

This Officer was first appointed on the Extension of the Order in January1815, for the service of the Second and Third Classes; and all that has beenofficially promulgated respecting his duties, is in the following extract from theLondon Gazette:

“ His Royal Highness the Prince Regent hath been pleased to appoint, thatSir George Nayler, Knight, Genealogist and Blanc Coursier Herald of theOrder of the Bath, and York Herald, shall be the Officer of Arms At-tendant upon the said Knights Commanders and Companions ; andalso to command, that the Officers hereby appointed Knights Commanders, andthose who shall hereafter be respectively nominated and constituted KnightsCommanders or Companions, shall immediately after such nomination transmitto the said Sir George Nayler, a statement of their respective Military Services,verified by their signatures, in order that the same may be by him recordedin Books appropriated to the said Knights Commanders and Companions.” 6

Besides recording the Military Services of the Knights Commanders andCompanions, the Officer of Arms performs the same duties towards them asare rendered to the Knights Grand Cross, by the whole corps of Officersattached to the First Class of the Order, though the number of the Second andThird Classes are nearly ten times as great. He notifies the appointments ofKnights Commanders and Companions, attends the Investitures of KnightsCommanders, bears the Insignia, and conducts them to the Sovereign’s presence.He also undertakes to provide and superintend the erection of their Banners andPlates, and the Plates of the Companions, in Westminster Abbey. Besides theMilitary Services, he records the Arms, and Pedigrees, of the Knights Com-manders, and receives a Fee for a copy of those “ Rules and Ordinances”mentioned in the London Gazette, but which, however, after the lapse of twenty-five years, still, it is believed, remain unwritten. He has no Salary, and his

6 Vide p. 130, antea.