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When my father
David James McGeachie created these arms he was faced with the difficulty of a blank canvas, as no McGeachie had ever been granted Arms in either Scotland or Ireland.
After many
hours of discussion with the family, it was decided that the basic layout for
the shield would be a chevron with three charges. My fathers reasoning behind
this was that my mothers maiden name was Cooper and they had a rendition of
Cooper arms which has the same layout (a chevron with three charges) which they
all liked.
The base
colours of black and white were chosen to signify my fathers thirty years as a
martial artist taking part in Karate and Iaido. The charges are; two
gillyflowers and a chrysanthemum. The gillyflowers were taken from the
our present location Livingston and are similar to the charges used on the
Livingston Development Corporation arms. The chrysanthemum is a reference to my
fathers love of all things Japanese, including his martial arts and a particular
brand of motorcycle manufacturer whose bikes he prefers to ride - their colour
scheme usually being green, black and white. The number of petals in the
chrysanthemum is also significant, as each petal represents a generation traced
back so far on the McGeachie lineage. The green (Vert) of the charges are another reference to
the family roots going back to Ireland. The fimbriation was necessary due to
the rules of heraldry, having to place a metal between two colours.
The crest, the leopard and the ell-measure, is to represent the
McGeachie family origins of weavers in Glasgow, Lanark in the 18th & 19th century
and earlier back to Ireland. The leopards head is a charge on the Incorporation
of Weavers arms from Glasgow which had been in existence from 1514 – 1905 (again
as above, the same shield layout of a chevron and three charges). The Scottish
ell-measure (usually 37 inches long) was once used by weavers to measure cloth
in the market-place.
The motto of "Peritia
Et Honore" is another reference to my fathers martial arts days and
translates as: By Skill and Honour.
The Arms of my father
David James McGeachie No 106 |
