✦ British · London · Photograph: 30 May 2014
Another order. Another room of arms.
A 2014 photograph records banners at St Paul’s. Comparing them with Windsor requires the membership and display practices of the correct order.
Photo by DAVID ILIFF · CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Enlarge the photograph ↗✦ Photograph-based observations
What does a shared name conceal?
Coloured rectangular banners hang over the stalls on the right of a bright chapel. Carved wooden seats and wall panels face one another across an aisle leading to an altar.
The banners contain different compositions, some partly folded or cut by the frame. The room’s architecture, lettering, memorial panels, and textiles are separate kinds of evidence.
What the record tells us
David Iliff’s file record dates the eastward-looking photograph to 30 May 2014. The Central Chancery identifies this as the Order of St Michael and St George’s chapel at St Paul’s, dedicated in 1906. Its account and annual report distinguish stall furnishings, permanent stall plates, and the armorial banners displayed by Knights and Dames Grand Cross. These are the practices of this order; they should not be borrowed indiscriminately from the Garter. [1]
✦ Editorial interpretation
What follows from the arrangement?
Both chapel names contain Saint George, which makes an easy comparison possible and an easy mistake rather tempting. Windsor's chapel belongs to the Garter; the London chapel belongs to the Order of St Michael and St George. Each institution supplies the rules needed to interpret its display. We can compare the rooms' banners and stalls, but a rule about one order's membership or grades does not transfer merely because the photographs look similar. Establishing the institutional address is the first step in deciding what the resemblance can support.
The photograph preserves a modern display on a particular day. It does not establish that every banner is newly designed, nor does it identify today’s stall holders. Familiar charges should prompt a search for a documented bearer, not a name guessed from a resemblance or a present-day list.
Image rights belong in the evidence too. This photograph is licensed by its author under CC BY-SA 3.0, which differs from the museum’s CC0 photographs and public-domain archival images elsewhere in the collection. Keeping the credit, licence link, and resize statement attached to reproductions makes the image’s modern authorship visible.
Claims and their evidence
| Claim | Evidence | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| The photograph records the chapel looking east on 30 May 2014. | Photographer’s file record | A dated view, not a current inventory or the age of every object shown. |
| The chapel belongs to the Order of St Michael and St George and was dedicated in 1906. | Central Chancery institutional account | Not the Garter or St George’s Chapel at Windsor. |
| Grand Cross holders display armorial banners in the chapel. | Central Chancery annual report | Do not infer banner rights for every grade or identify holders from this image alone. |
✦ Your turn
Explain what supports your conclusion.
Compare this photograph with a Windsor view. Make a table with the order, location, dated view, forms of display, and institutional source for each. Explain one resemblance and one rule that needs its own documentary support rather than being transferred between the two settings.
Discuss your answer
A strong answer keeps the orders separate and gives both photographs their own dates. It distinguishes a banner from a wall memorial or plate, leaves obscured designs incomplete, and attributes the different display practices to the correct institution.
Take the research further
Read the Central Chancery’s annual report alongside its institutional chapel description. Select one difference between temporary banners and lasting stall records, then identify the kind of dated record needed to connect a photographed banner with a particular holder.
Return to the related Academy reading ↗Sources and image rights
- Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, The Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George. Record consulted 2026-10-10. The date above describes the artifact or photograph, not the publication date of this webpage.
- CC BY-SA 3.0 — image rights. Photograph and this resized copy are distributed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Credit the photographer, link the licence, indicate changes, and apply the same or a compatible licence to adaptations. Resized without cropping or recolouring. Image credit: Photo by DAVID ILIFF. Photograph’s source and rights record ↗
- Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, The Chapel of the Order: Annual Report 2023–2025. Describes permanent stall plates and lifetime armorial banners for Knights and Dames Grand Cross; this later report is contextual evidence, not a list of the 2014 photograph’s holders. Consulted 2026-10-10.
Show the BibTeX citation
@misc{jhheraldry_object-st-michael-george-banners,
author = {{Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood}},
title = {The Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (study photograph identifier Wikimedia Commons file 33156317)},
howpublished = {\url{https://www.centralchancery.org.uk/orders-of-chivalry/the-most-distinguished-order-of-st-michael-and-st-george/}},
url = {https://www.centralchancery.org.uk/orders-of-chivalry/the-most-distinguished-order-of-st-michael-and-st-george/},
note = {Original-language institutional account. Accessed 2026-10-10.}
}