US Secretary of State Colin Powell has commissioned a coat of arms to commemorate his family ties to Scotland.
The American-born statesman is not a British subject, so he has applied for the coat of arms in the name of his late father, who was born in Jamaica, and therefore eligible for the crest because of the island's membership in the Commonwealth.
The Secretary of State's coat of arms reflects his military career, with two swords arranged in a diagonal cross, an eagle symbolising the United States and a lion, an icon traditionally associated with the Powell surname.
A representative at the Court of the Lord Lyon, the Scottish equivalent of London's College of Arms, confirmed: "He has made the petition to remember his father. The arms can then be passed to him as his father's heir." He is thought to have applied to the Lord Lyon because his mother, Maud Ariel McKoy, was of Scottish descent.
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