The coat of arms of the British Virgin Islands consists of a green escutcheon (shield) charged with a woman in a white dress and gold-coloured sandals, holding a lit golden

oil lamp An oil lamp is a lamp used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and continues to this day, although their use is less common in modern times. Th ...

and surrounded by eleven other golden lamps. Adopted shortly after the islands became a Crown colony, it has been the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

of the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Bri ...

since 1960. The escutcheon dates from the early 19th century and is featured on the flag of the territory. The woman and the lamps represent

Saint Ursula Saint Ursula (Latin for 'little female bear', german: link=no, Heilige Ursula) is a legendary Romano-British Christian saint who died on 21 October 383. Her feast day in the pre-1970 General Roman Calendar is 21 October. There is little in ...

and her companions, the namesake of the islands.

History

The

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Cro ...

were first sighted and named by

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

in 1493, during his second journey to the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. The territory was claimed by the Spanish in 1555 under a detachment dispatched by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, but they did not establish any settlements there. Privateers from the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

settled on several of the islands and governed them until 1666, when English planters – together with "brigands and pirates" – began inhabiting the territory and forced many of the Dutch colonists to leave. The English subsequently seized control of the islands six years later at the outset of the

Third Anglo-Dutch War The Third Anglo-Dutch War ( nl, Derde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog), 27 March 1672 to 19 February 1674, was a naval conflict between the Dutch Republic and England, in alliance with France. It is considered a subsidiary of the wider 1672 to 1678 ...

, placing them under the administration of the British Leeward Islands. Responsible government was accorded to the Virgin Islanders in 1773, with a judiciary and a partially-elected legislature. The design of the present-day coat of arms first emerged around the early 19th century. However, the territory did not utilise its own symbols until it became a Crown colony, with the Union Jack serving as the official

state flag In vexillology, a state flag is either the flag of the government of a sovereign state, or the flag of an individual federated state (subnational administrative division). Government flag A state flag is a variant of a national flag (or occasi ...

of the islands. The legislature was disbanded in 1901 and authority over the islands was transferred to the governor of the Leeward Islands, who exercised power through a commissioner and an executive council that he selected. Self-government was eventually restored in 1950 and the Leeward Islands federation was dissolved in 1956. The British Virgin Islands, nevertheless, opted not to join the West Indies Federation when it was created two years later. It instead became a Crown colony in 1960, and a royal warrant was consequently issued on 15 November of the same year granting the territory its own coat of arms. It was then employed on the

Blue Ensign The Blue Ensign is a flag, one of several British ensigns, used by certain organisations or territories associated or formerly associated with the United Kingdom. It is used either plain or defaced with a badge or other emblem. The ev ...

to create the flag of the territory. This was redesigned in 1999, with the size of the shield increased and outlined in white.

Design

The coat of arms of the British Virgin Islands were

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vi ...

ed by the royal warrant of 15 November 1960 as follows:

Vert a Virgin
proper Proper may refer to: Mathematics * Proper map, in topology, a property of continuous function between topological spaces, if inverse images of compact subsets are compact * Proper morphism, in algebraic geometry, an analogue of a proper map for ...
vested
Argent In heraldry, argent () is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to ...
sandalled or holding in the dexter hand by the chain an Ancient Lamp Gold enflamed also proper between eleven like Lamps five in pale to the dexter and six in pale to the sinister, together with the motto .

Symbolism

The colours and objects on the coat of arms carry cultural, political, and regional meanings. The woman wearing a white dress and clutching a golden

, who is both the namesake and the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of the Virgin Islands. The eleven other oil lamps allude to her eleven virgin companions (other accounts assert that she actually had 11,000 followers). They were purportedly martyred by the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

Germania Inferior Germania Inferior ("Lower Germania") was a Roman province from AD 85 until the province was renamed Germania Secunda in the fourth century, on the west bank of the Rhine bordering the North Sea. The capital of the province was Colonia Agripp ...

, during the fourth or fifth century. Columbus consequently named the islands ('Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins'), in honour of the aforementioned group of saints. This was abbreviated to ('The Virgins'). The motto in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

on a ribbon scroll under the escutcheon – – means 'be vigilant'.

Uses

Both the shield and motto from the arms are featured on the flag of the British Virgin Islands, and on the standard of the territory's governor. In the latter banner, the escutcheon is encircled by a wreath of two green branches that are interlaced in the middle with a blue bow.

References

Sources

Heraldry of the World: British Virgin Islands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coat Of Arms Of The British Virgin Islands British Virgin Islands culture