The Goodenough College coat of arms was granted (to the Dominion Students’ Hall Trust) in the late 1940s. George Bellew, Somerset Herald, was responsible for the original design and suggested the motto ‘United in Learning’.
The governors did not like the owls; the tottering archway aroused little enthusiasm; there was a desire to include some motif representative of the sea. Agreement came slowly, engineered by Sir William Goodenough and his long-serving secretary, Rosalind Cummins, both renowned for their skill at compromise. The motto was replaced, first by Sir William’s own suggestion of Quis separabit (‘Who
shall separate us?’), and then, in confi dence that no such question could arise, Nemo separabit (‘None shall separate us’). The green continents remained, linked by a golden chain crossing a wavy blue and white vertical band that represents the sea. The owls were replaced by heraldic lions; the book remained, but displaying the words Unitas in sapientia (‘Unity in wisdom’). The agreed coat of arms appears as a carving above the entrance gate in the north wing of London House (see p47). However, the fate of modern heraldic bearings is to be rarely seen; no governor of London House bears its arms in battle.
Much more familiar is the emblem designed by Sir Herbert Baker. ‘I have been thinking out the question of symbols for London House,’ he wrote in 1936 during discussion of decorations for the finished building. His suggestion for a winged torch, the torch of enlightenment combined with the wings of inspiration, is seen in silhouette on publications and stationery and is displayed in full colour above the two lower arches of the new entrance gate.
