15 Facts About Anthony Wagner

Anthony Wagner served as Garter Principal King of Arms before retiring to the post of Clarenceux King of Arms.

Anthony Wagner was one of the most prolific authors on the subjects of heraldry and genealogy of the 20th century.

Anthony Wagner attended Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, on scholarships.

Anthony Wagner found the classics uninteresting and graduated with a third in Literae humaniores.

Anthony Wagner joined the College of Arms as Portcullis Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary in 1931.

Anthony Wagner was promoted to Richmond Herald of Arms in Ordinary in 1943 and Garter Principal King of Arms in 1961.

Anthony Wagner was a firm believer in the view that appointments to the college were for life.

Anthony Wagner took part in the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth ll in 1951 as Richmond Herald, and as Garter King of Arms took part in and was involved in the ceremonial aspects of the state funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965 and the Investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle in 1969.

Anthony Wagner was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists in 1944.

Howard said Anthony Wagner "is one of our most distinguished historians, the man who made heraldry respectable and who holds the sceptre of continuity in our changing times".

Anthony Wagner had many interests outside the world and work of the College of Arms.

Anthony Wagner belonged to the Vintners' Company, serving as Master from 1973 to 1974; and was a member of a number of important dining clubs including the Society of Dilettanti, the antiquarian Cocked Hats, and the bibliophilic Roxburghe Club.

One, which arose from the Harleian Society, was an endeavour to list and describe the surviving English Rolls of Arms: to this series Anthony Wagner contributed the first volume.

Anthony Wagner's office had been highly mechanised from an early stage, but all the more so once he became blind in 1984, whereupon, making every use of the aids of modern science, he bore his affliction with patience and dexterity.

Anthony Wagner was a staunch supporter of hereditary peers and defended their presence in the House of Lords in an article in the Times on 30 January 1969 which became the foreword to the 1970 edition of Burke's Peerage.