Coat of Arms

 

badge

The personal badge of Bailie William Harris, the founder of Harris Academy, was a crane clutching a stone.  During the time of the original Park Place building erected in 1885 Bailie Harris's badge was adopted by the Academy into an amplified design for its own badge.  When the Perth Road building was erected in 1931 that badge was displayed above the front door.  Thomas Innes of Learney, at that time Carrick Pursuivant at the Court of the Lord Lyon, was then engaged in a quest to have all public bodies making use of “arms” to follow the law.  It was his efforts that led to a multitude of burghs and county councils matriculating arms at Lyon Court in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  It is likely that he considered Harris Academy was making use of illegal arms and took steps to ensure that proper arms were matriculated by the Academy.  As a result a coat of arms was granted to Harris Academy by the Lord Lyon King of Arms in 1935.  The tripartite design of the arms shows a crane clutching a stone (commemorating the Academy’s founder, Bailie William Harris), a pot of lilies (the arms of the Royal Burgh of Dundee), and a lamp of learning (to represent academic excellence), accompanied by the motto “Spe et Labore”.  In 1957 the Former Pupils’ Association matriculated a differenced version of these arms with the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the gold border indicating that the FP Association is the Academy’s eldest offshoot.