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Four ecclesiastical coats of arms by Col. Harry D. Temple
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025
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Searching the Internet for what I deem to be "good" US corporate heraldry has yielded quite a few finds. For this article, I want to highlight a few themes (or patterns) in the data so far likely identifying the designer.
Col. Harry D. Temple (1911-2004) was a proliferate heraldic designer in the Episcopal Church, active from the mid-to-late twentieth century. While he was head of the US Army's Institute on Heraldry, he must have been a devout Episcopalian given the sheer volume of arms he produced for cathedrals and parishes. To date, I've only discovered two coats of arms for Episcopal dioceses designed by Temple--Virginia and Georgia. The Diocese of Virginia, however, plays an integral part in one theme under examination here.
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Coat of arms of Christ Church in Alexandria, VA
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
The chief of St. George, argent a cross throughout gules, is seen in two known arms by Temple as illustrated above in the top row--Diocese of Virginia and Christ Church Cathedral in Louisville, KY. Two designs that I found recently play perfectly into this design scheme, St. James Episcopal Church in Leesburg and Christ Church Alexandria, both in Northern Virginia. In these two later coats of arms, we see Temple adding differencing marks in the chief for variation. Due to Christ Church's geographic location in Washington, DC, the undifferenced arms of Washington are used in chief--kind of brilliant I think.
Blazon for the arms of Christ Church Alexandria: Azure, three lymphads Or on a chief Argent two bars and three mullets in chief Gules.
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Coat of arms of St. James Episcopal Church in Leesburg, VA
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
St. James' avoids using the traditional three escallops and places one at fesspoint on the chief. The checky base comes from the Lee arms to play on the geographic location of the parish
Blazon for the arms of St. James Episcopal Church in Leesburg, VA: Checky Or and Azure, on a chief Ermine a cross throughout Gules charged at fesspoint with an escallop Or.
I feel very confident attributing the designs of Christ Church and St. James to Temple--once a designer has developed her or his framework for illustrating unification and differencing, those designs tend to be repeated and variated throughout their work. I learned this lesson through my research on Pierre de Chaignon la Rose (1872-1941).
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Another example of Temple's framework showing unification through the canton
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2024 |
Another example of Temple's framework for showing unification can be shown above in the arms of Augustine Parish (left) and Trinity Cathedral (right) in the Diocese of Easton.
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Temple's framework using the canton for differencing
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
Temple also used the canton for differencing and/or to provide additional historical facts/names/etc. for the corporate arms in question. Here we see (left) Cathedral of St. James in South Bend, IN, (center) St. Luke's Cathedral in Orlando, FL, and (right) the retired arms of St. Paul's Parish in Richmond, VA.
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Likely another example of Temple's framework for unification
Rendered by Chad Krouse, 2025 |
Finally, I'm currently on the hunt for evidence to support my hypothesis that these two arms were designed by Temple. First, the canton raised my suspicion followed by the "bordure" of the arms of the diocese where the parish is located--Central Gulf Coast (left) and New Hampshire (right). The cantons, here, provide additional geographic references--the star for Texas and the chevron between three estoiles refers to the arms of the Earls of Peterborough.
I love finding patterns in data, especially in heraldry. Yes imitations exist, but more often than not, a designer's framework is easily recognizable once understood. More to come.
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