St Kilda Kilts & Scottish Gifts

Unsurprisingly, this family were the bearers of the royal standard in the tenth and eleventh centuries. However, due to conspicuous bravery at a battle at the River Spey, the office was given to the Carron family by Malcolm III (or Alexander I), whose descendants still bear the royal standard. However, the Bannerman kindred (Bannermen?) went on to be a leading family in the north east.  

Here we have a knight in armour holding a sword, symbolising their knightly ancestry. The Latin motto ‘pro patria’, ie ‘for my country’ comes from the Roman author Horace, ‘dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’, it is sweet and appropriate to die for one’s country. Most Scottish lairds would have known the classical authors quite well, Scottish education being among the best in Europe in the later middle ages and early modern periods.

Crest and Motto were recorded by Sir George MacKenzie in his 1680s manuscript on the Families of Scotland. Apparently, the Bannerman laird of Elsick and Watertown had only recently readopted the arms featuring a broken banner (supposedly ordered by an angry Malcolm III), having previously used similar arms to the Forbes, to whom they were allied. As such this crest and motto date to the seventeenth century.

MKP 15 August 2020