Any help to work out these arms, and the motto?

[Little Nell]

If the 'surround' is the garter ( and there is only one garter in heraldic terms), then it is unlikely to be the arms of Eton College.  The Order of the Garter is awarded to individuals, not to institutions and Eton College would not have received this order. 

I grant you that the uniform does not like those shown in the links, but they hadn't designed and made polo shirts in the 19th century 

This one is quite a puzzle

Nell

[John915]

Good evening,

Yes, the Order of the Garter is given to individuals. However the garter is used in many many regt'l badges, coats of arms etc. All with the motto exact without having anything to do with the Order.

I would also go with it being the arms of the college in the centre. It is possible then, that the badge as is, on the arm, known to have been a waterman, he was the Eton College waterman or one of them if more. As well as being swimming instructor, the two would fit together
.
I wish I could help a little more, Windsor and Eton is one of my delivery rounds in the summer. One of my shops is almost outside the college and the library is right opposite it. I think we would like to tie it all up well before summer.

John915

[John915]

Back again,

Not sure where the "polo shirt" comes in. He's wearing a wing collar and tie, although the collar has been flattened by the jacket.

Reading the link to the newspaper reports I don't think he's is necessarily an offender. They look as though they could be lists of licenced premises applicants. Just a thought, no indication of what they are in the reports.

John915

[KGarrad]

Not sure where the "polo shirt" comes in. He's wearing a wing collar and tie, although the collar has been flattened by the jacket.

See my link in reply #7.

However, I was referring to the blazer badges.
The Queen's (or is it Royal?) Swanuppers have the Royal Cipher (E II R) on their badge.
The Vintner's Company have a swan on theirs.

Absolutely nothing like the original photo!

[PrueM]

Well, I've sent off an email to the Eton College archives, so we'll see what they come back with (if anything).  Thank you all so much for your interest!

.
I wish I could help a little more, Windsor and Eton is one of my delivery rounds in the summer. One of my shops is almost outside the college and the library is right opposite it. I think we would like to tie it all up well before summer.

What are you talking about - it's summer right now!    (just kidding, I know you're talking about "your" summer  )  I will be in England in June/July visiting my in-laws in west London.  Although we have done many day trips to Windsor I will endeavour, this time, to get over to Eton for a look around.

If the 'surround' is the garter ( and there is only one garter in heraldic terms), then it is unlikely to be the arms of Eton College.  The Order of the Garter is awarded to individuals, not to institutions and Eton College would not have received this order. 

...

This one is quite a puzzle

Nell

That's what I thought, Nell.  I've asked Eton's archivist to clarify what exactly it is.  It certainly looks like the garter, but as you say, that doesn't fit with the Eton arms within it, or the Eton motto that is apparently on it.

Reading the link to the newspaper reports I don't think he's is necessarily an offender. They look as though they could be lists of licenced premises applicants. Just a thought, no indication of what they are in the reports.

The articles I read were court reports, with details about two assaults by Jethro (one against a boy, and one against his own wife). 

[John915]

Good evening,

Apologies, with regards to the reports I could only read the listings at the bottom as my computor refused to open a readable version of the newspapers, and still does.

I didn't have the old thinking cap on straight and thought Nell was refering to the original picture.

To help understand the use of the garter iv'e put up a picture of the Royal Engineers cap badge. They are not part of the Order of the Garter but use the royal garter as part of their badge. So no reason why the college boatman shouldn't have the college arms surrounded by the royal Garter as his arm device. Equally, it could just be A garter with the college motto on it. The "Y" just being one of those little things they use to seperate words sometimes.

Prue, if you get to Eton and you see a lorry delivering ice cream in Eton high st, in the AM, it may be me.

John915

[PrueM]

Hi all, I have had an email back from the Eton College archivist - she confirms the following:

This is certainly the watermen’s uniform – the jacket was dark blue - and you are right that the badge depicts the College arms. Unfortunately our examples of the jacket don’t have the badge attached but there is no doubt that this was what was on them, and I think it was just seen as a surround rather than being intended to be a garter. The basic arms were sometimes represented in rather fancy shields, eg on hat badges. and I think this surround is an extension of that.

So there you go 

Thank you all so much for your interest and your help, I really appreciate it!

Prue