Charles Wilfrid (or Wilfred) Scott-Giles[1] (24 October 1893 – 1982) was an English writer on heraldry and an officer of arms, who served as Fitzalan Pursuivant Extraordinary.[2]
Charles Wilfrid Giles was born in Southampton on 24 October 1893, the son of Charles Giles, sometime Chairman of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.[3] He was educated at Emanuel School in Battersea in London, and served in the First World War in the Royal Army Service Corps.[3] Between 1919 and 1922 he read history at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.[2] He then worked on the parliamentary staff of the Press Association before being appointed as secretary of the Institution of Municipal and County Engineers in 1928.[4] In 1946 he became secretary of the Public Works and Municipal Services Congress and Exhibition Council.[3]
In July 1928 he assumed the surname "Scott-Giles" by deed poll.[5]
He became a leading authority on heraldry, and wrote a number of books and articles on the subject. He was credited by John Brooke-Little as initiator of the concept and name of The White Lion Society.[6]
He also wrote the standard histories of his old school, Emanuel, and of his old college, Sidney Sussex.
His heraldic publications included:
Other works included:
Scott-Giles was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1953, and in 1957 became Fitzalan Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary.[9] In 1970 he was awarded the Julian Bickersteth Memorial Medal by the trustees and council of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies.[10]
Following his retirement he settled in Cambridge, where he was made a Fellow-Commoner of his old college, Sidney Sussex.[2]
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Godfrey, Walter H.; Wagner, Anthony; London, H. Stanford (1963). "Fitzalan Pursuivant". The College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street. Survey of London Monograph. Vol. 16. London: Survey of London. p. 257.