This biography needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this biography. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Thomas Innes of Learney" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(April 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Sir Thomas Innes of LearneyThe heraldic achievement of the Office of the Lord Lyon King of Arms.
Sir Thomas Innes of LearneyGCVO WS (1893–1971) was a Scottish officer of arms who was Lord Lyon from 1945[1] to 1969.[2]
He was Carrick Pursuivant and Albany Herald in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a very active Lord Lyon, strongly promoting his views of what his office was through his writings and pronouncements in his Court. In 1950, he convinced the Scots Law Times to start publishing the decisions made in Lyon Court. By ruling on uncontested petitions, he was able to expound many of his theories in court but not under review of his superior court, and get them published in the judicial record. His treatise, Scots Heraldry, was first published in 1934 when he was Carrick Pursuivant; then a second, enlarged edition came out in 1956, and it has practically eclipsed earlier works on the subject. Following his retirement as Lord Lyon in 1969, he was appointed Marchmont Herald, and continued as Secretary of the Order of the Thistle until 1971.[3]
Innes of Learney's writings contain a number of theories which, at a time when English armorial law had come to dominate even Scottish heraldry, may have seemed quite novel, despite his claims that they were grounded in Scotland's feudal past. Most notable is the claim that a grant of arms in Scotland confers what he calls "noblesse" and equates with nobility in the original sense, namely basic untitled nobility possessed by everyone noble, from Gentleman to Duke – though the word is nowadays generally taken to mean exclusively the Peerage, which is why the French word noblesse seemed to him a better term. There are also other claims, such as his right to decide disputes over chiefships of clans or branches of clans, his right to decide disputes of precedence, his right to confer nobility to non-physical persons such as corporations or associations, etc. These rights are still (2007) being exercised by the Court of the Lord Lyon. As a jurist, in 'Scots Heraldry' and in his revision of Adam's The Clans, Septs and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands as well as in The Tartans of the Clans and Families of Scotland he offers evidence from ancient legal documents as well as more recent parliament and court decisions to support his position.[citation needed]
Innes was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 1946 Birthday Honours[4] and a Knight Grand Cross of the same Order in the 1967 Birthday Honours.[5]
^"No. 16239". The London Gazette. 19 June 1945. p. 215.
^"No. 44812". The London Gazette. 21 March 1969. p. 3085.
^"No. 18955". The Edinburgh Gazette. 22 January 1971. p. 53.
^"No. 37598". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1946. p. 2764.
^"No. 44326". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1967. p. 6272.
and 27 Related for: Thomas Innes of Learney information
Sir ThomasInnesofLearney GCVO WS (1893–1971) was a Scottish officer of arms who was Lord Lyon from 1945 to 1969. He was Carrick Pursuivant and Albany...
concept of the Scottish Noblesse, a class of nobles of either peerage or non-peerage rank, was prominently advocated for by Sir ThomasInnesofLearney during...
Sir ThomasInnesofLearney,[citation needed] a clan is a community that is distinguished by heraldry and recognised by the Sovereign. Learney considered...
Torquhil Campbell, 13th Duke of Argyll. Frank Adam and ThomasInnesofLearney, in their The Clans, Septs & Regiments of the Scottish Highlands, listed...
in the 1950 Tricentenary booklet "The History of Garmouth and Maggie Fair" by Sir ThomasInnesofLearney.[citation needed] Garmouth railway station "Mid-2020...
Suzanne Innes-Stubb (born 1970), British-Finnish attorney, First Lady of Finland 2024– Ted Innes (1925–2010), politician ThomasInnesofLearney (1893–1971)...
November 2018. Learney, Sir ThomasInnesof (1971). Scots Heraldry: A Practical Handbook on the Historical Principles and Modern Application of the Art and...
Edward, 17th Earl of Derby Sir ThomasInnesofLearney David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley Henry FitzRoy, 12th Duke of Grafton Aristocracy...
through the county. The coat of arms, described by ThomasInnesofLearney, a future Lord Lyon, in the Elgin Courant of 6 May 1927 as "the most beautiful...
T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1894-X. InnesofLearney, Thomas (1971) [1939]. The Tartans of the Clans and Families of Scotland (8th ed.). Edinburgh: Johnston...
barony. Under Sir ThomasInnesofLearney (Lord Lyon King of Arms 1945–1969), wording was introduced into every Scottish patent of arms which states that...
Retrieved 23 December 2011. InnesofLearney, Sir Thomas (1978). Scots Heraldry (3rd edition, revised by Malcolm Innesof Edingight ed.). London and Edinburgh:...
England and ThomasInnesofLearney in Scotland. The suggestion is discredited by an examination, in England, of the records of the High Court of Chivalry...
Hugh Cheape, from a 1999 interview. InnesofLearney (1971), pp. 8, 10. InnesofLearney (1971), p. 8, citing: Fraser of Reelig, Charles Ian (1930). Some...
which the law has jurisdiction. According to former Lord Lyon Sir ThomasInnesofLearney, a clan is a community that is distinguished by heraldry and recognised...
England and ThomasInnesofLearney in Scotland. The significance of a right to a coat of arms was that it was definitive proof of the status of gentleman...
relatively recent armorial invention of the late Lord Lyon ThomasInnesofLearney. Accordingly, a number of ancient arms of barons do not display the chapeau...
January 1924. p. 4. "Personal papers of Sir ThomasInnesofLearney". Retrieved 16 November 2016. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2005–2008. Oxford:...
Global Information
