Georgian grant of arms to physician Gilbert Blane – £3300 at Reeman Dansie.
If it were, the shield would bear inset the baronet’s badge (a red hand on an inset shield or canton) and the helm would be placed affronte (facing) with an open visor, not as depicted.
In fact the grant – presumably by Lyon Court, as Gilbert Blane was a Scotsman – is to a ‘gentleman’, and predates the creation of the baronetcy on December 26, 1812.
Hopefully the letters patent for the creation of the baronetcy still survive, unlike the title which sadly expired in 1916 when Cmdr Sir Charles Blane, 4th Bt, RN, was killed in action.
There was no male heir, and in a fairer world his only child, Helen Mary, would have succeeded to the baronetcy.
Brian Fitzelle
