Lyon appointment announced

Lawyer and historian David Sellar to take up role

News, 7 March 2008

The Queen, on the recommendation of the First Minister, has appointed Mr William David Hamilton Sellar to be Lord Lyon King of Arms. Mr Sellar succeeds Robin Blair, LVO, WS, who has held the office of Lord Lyon since 2001.

Mr Sellar (67) qualified as a solicitor in 1966. After two years with the Scottish Land Court, he joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Edinburgh where he is now an honorary fellow.

The Lord Lyon has both administrative and judicial functions. The former include the granting of armorial bearings to individual persons and corporations. Judicial functions include ruling on who has the right to bear an existing coat of arms, and the authorisation of matriculations of differenced arms. The post is part time at three days a week.

David Sellar, joint author of the Saltire Society's Scottish Legal Tradition (1991), has written on the history of various branches of Scots law, including marriage, divorce, incest, homicide and unjust enrichment. He has published on the Lordship of the Isles and on the origins of many Highland families.

Among other posts he has been O'Donnell Lecturer (in Celtic Studies) at Edinburgh, a member of the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland, Literary Director of the Stair Society, and Chairman of Council of the Scottish History Society. He has also served on the Council of the Scottish Genealogy Society and of the Heraldry Society of Scotland. He was appointed Bute Pursuivant of Arms in 2001.

The office of the Lord Lyon is situated in New Register House, Edinburgh.

Her Majesty is also to appoint Mr Sellar to be secretary of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.