HMS Conway’s first coat of arms, shown on the right, was adopted in 1859. It evolved over the years but the three towered castle was always a core motif.

The Conway Club was formed in 1910 but did not adopt a coat of arms for some years. Once introduced it also evolved over time as described below.

  1. From 1907 OCs began informally wearing a blazer badge shown below as Version 2. When the Conway Club was formed in 1910 the informal badge was adopted but the letters OC were replaced with the letters CC i.e. Conway Club.
  2. In 1925 the letters were changed back to OC i.e. Old Conway.
  3. The badge was later changed to that familiar to us today; the Ship surrounded by a laurel wreath, surmounted by the red castle and with the motto hand written on a scroll below. The first example of this (version 3 of which I have no example (yet!)) included a very detailed representation of the Ship’s rigging.
  4. At some point it was changed to Version 4. The Ship’s hull (especially the stern) was rather stylised and the rigging was virtually nonexistent. A red badge shape used as a frame became more rounded. The wreath was red, the scroll white and the motto red. The castle was not centred properly.
  5. Version 5 in use to this day, retained the style of version 4 except that the rigging was slightly more complete, the hull was much more realistic and the shield outline was dropped. The encircling wreath and  motto became gold coloured. The wreath was still handwritten but was written anew by John Southwood (55-57). The observant may have spotted that the crest on the cover of the new history of the ship has been rewritten again in printed text rather than hand-written text.