Unicorn Pursuivant
The Court of the Lord Lyon
Scotland’s Heraldic Authority
Roderick Alexander Macpherson
Armorial Bearings of Roderick Alexander Macpherson
HM Unicorn Pursuivant
The unicorn was adopted as a royal badge
some time after 1381 but it is not known
exactly when the first Unicorn Pursuivant was
created, the earliest names being John Fraser
in 1426. Perhaps because it is the national
beast of Scotland, the line of Unicorn
Pursuivants has remained almost unbroken.
Parted per fess Or and Azure a lymphad of the First, sails furled, oars in
action and tackling all Proper, flag and pennon flying Gules in dexter canton
a dexter hand fessways couped holding a dagger erect, in sinister canton a
cross crosslet firchée all of the Third, in dexter and sinister base a thistle
slipped of the First.
Crest: a cat sejant erect Proper grasping in the dexter paw a baton Sable
tipped Argent.
PRAABS vol. 71 fol. 6
Roderick Alexander Macpherson was Lyon Macer from 2012 until 2018
when he became Falkland Pursuivant Extraordinary. In September 2021
he was advanced to Unicorn Pursuivant. A messenger-at-arms and
sheriff officer, he is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
and sometime Secretary of the Oxford University Heraldry Society. He
has twice been President of the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and
Sheriff Officers, was Preses of the Grand Antiquity Society of Glasgow
and is a past President of the Glasgow Highland Club. He holds the
Platinum Jubilee and Coronation Medals.
Unicorn Pursuivants since 1426
1426 John Fraser 1467 Adam Wallace of Craigie 1474 Anon 1500 William Niven 1507 Thomas Pettigrew of Magdalensyde 1528 John Balfour 1543 Robert Hart 1554 William Hardy 1560 Alexander McCulloch 1567 Peter Ramsay 1570 Thomas Barrie 1585 Robert Fraser 1599 John Ramsay 1617 James Fuirde 1619 John Borthwick 1633 Thomas Fuirde 1635 George Wight 1636 Andrew Littlejohn 1646 Andrew Aitchinson 1660 William Malcolm 1662 William Hume 1707 Sir William Erskine of Cambo, Bart. 1715 James Kirkwood 1719 Charles Gordon 1741 William Boyd
1760 James Strachan
1764 Thomas Husband
1764 William Douglas
1790 Robert Grant
1796 David Anderson
1806 David Taylor
1825 Cook
1845 James Sinclair
1859 Andrew Gillman
1860 Stuart Moodie Livingstone
1902 John Horne Stevenson KC
1925 Sir John Mackintosh Norman MacLeod of Fuinary, Bart.
1929 Lt-Col. Harold Andrew Balvaird Lawson CVO
1939 Lt-Col. Gordon Dalyell of the Binns CIE
1955 Iain Moncreiffe of Easter Moncreiffe
1961 John Inglis Drever "Don" Pottinger LVO
1981 Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw, Bart.
1986 Alastair Campbell of Airds
2008 The Hon. Adam Bruce
2012 Reginald John Malden
2016 Liam Devlin
2021 Roderick Alexander Macpherson
