Colin Cole ( officer of arms ) Sir Alexander Colin Cole , KCB , KCVO ( 16 May 1922 – 20 February 2001 ) was a long serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London . Eventually , he would rise to the rank of Garter Principal King of Arms , the highest heraldic office in England . Early life and education . Colin Cole was born in Surrey on 16 May 1922 , the elder son of Edward Cole , a prosperous staples manufacturer . The family descends from John Cole , a yeoman in the parish of Twickenham , Middlesex , in the mid - 17th century . Cole was educated at Dulwich College ( where his portrait stands in the stairwell to the Great Hall ) , Pembroke College , Cambridge and Brasenose College , Oxford where he read Law . During World War II he served as a captain in the Coldstream Guards . He was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1949 and pursued a legal career before aspiring to be an officer of arms . In 1944 Colin Cole married Valerie Card . They had four sons and three daughters . Heraldic career . In 1953 Cole was Fitzalan Pursuivant Extraordinary at the coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom . Shortly after this , began his migration from the bar to the College of Arms . This came as a result of the revival , in 1954 , of the High Court of Chivalry ( which had not sat since 1737 ) to hear the case of Manchester Corporation versus Manchester Palace of Varieties for wrongfully displaying the city ' s coat of arms . Cole represented the Palace of Varieties but he lost the case . After a short term as Fitzalan Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary , Cole was appointed an officer in ordinary ( a full member of the College of Arms ) as Portcullis Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary in 1957 . He became Windsor Herald of Arms in Ordinary in 1966 . Cole also served as the College ' s registrar and librarian from 1967 to 1974 . He was appointed Garter Principal King of Arms four years later , in 1978 and held that position until 1992 . As Garter , Cole liberalised the rules devised by Sir Anthony Wagner for the admittance of new officers to the College . Previously they had always been university graduates who had also served a heraldic apprenticeship . Under Cole ' s leadership , this rule no longer applied and the majority of the pursuivants appointed had no pretensions to scholarship . His leisurely conduct of day - to - day business , hampered by the lack of a properly staffed office , sometimes led to expressions of irritation from clients . When a patent for a Knight of the Garter was belatedly presented to the Queen to sign , it came back with a note that read : " Her Majesty prefers to sign these while the recipient is still alive . " Likewise , during the time leading up to the wedding of the Prince of Wales in 1981 Cole ' s inability to find the relevant file of precedents in time , led to the officers of arms not being invited to the wedding . Cole ' s strong streak of shrewdness and worldly wisdom was rarely deployed to the benefit of the College ; indeed , its role was somewhat curtailed when he was at the helm . By Letters Patent of 4 June 1988 the Queen established a separate heraldic authority for Canada with a new Chief Herald of Canada . From that date all grants of arms in Canada were made through that authority and not , as before , through the English Kings of Arms or the Lord Lyon . This abolition of the Earl Marshal ' s imperial jurisdiction was a significant development in the history of the English heralds , and marked a serious reduction in the area of their activity . It was considered at the time that Garter Cole , as the principal heraldic adviser to the Crown , should have tried to prevent this unnecessary diminution of the College ' s authority , but unfortunately he was hampered by lack of rapport with his Sovereign . Cole would perhaps have better suited the early Hanoverians , many of whose tastes he shared . It must also be noted that giving such advice would have been difficult . Garter King is a member of the Household of the Queen of the United Kingdom . The Canadian Heraldic Authority is a creation of the Queen of Canada and Her Government in Ottawa . Moreover , there was a political hurdle created in 1964 . John Ross Matheson reports on page 121 - 2 of his book " Canada ' s Flag " ( 1980 ; ISBN 0 - 8161 - 8426 - 7 ) the situation in 1964 of a committee of the Canadian Parliament detailed to consider the task of developing a Canadian flag . The committee was asking if Dr . Conrad Swan , then Rouge Dragon Pursuivant ( and a Canadian who was planning to be in Ottawa on other business ) , might be able to appear before the committee . Matheson writes " I did not see the final wording of our request but I have wondered since whether it may have been indelicately worded . . . . To the considerable consternation of our committee , a curt reply was received by cable from Sir Anthony Wagner on Monday , 5 October denying permission to Rouge Dragon to appear . Garter stated that he alone would appear for the college . The shocked reaction of the committee when this communication was studied destroyed utterly the influence in Canada of this historic heraldic authority . " Many believe that Cole ' s chief achievement as Garter King of Arms was the part he played in the restoration of the College building . The structure of the building was overhauled and the brickwork and stone balustrades repaired under the direction of the estate agents Cluttons . This was one of the first times the repair of an important historic building had been entrusted to a such a firm rather than to a specialist architect . Although a member of the Court of Common Council from 1964 , Cole never became an alderman , nor even a member of one of the Great Livery Companies , though he was a Freeman of the Scriveners , Basketmakers and Painter Stainers Companies . He was also a very active freemason . Honours and appointments . Colin Cole was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 1977 , was promoted to CVO in 1979 , and KCVO in 1983 . He was also made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1992 . Military in bearing and vocabulary , Cole was proud of his rank of Lieutenant - Colonel , RARO ( Brevet 1973 ) . Until his knighthood in 1983 he called himself Colonel Cole on the strength of his position in the Hon Artillery Company . He was honorary Colonel , 6 / 7 Battalion , the Queen ' s Regiment , from 1981 to 1986 , President of The Royal Society of St George from 1982 to 1998 , and Knight Principal of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor from 1995 .