At its simplest, a coat of arms is a shield. Nothing more is needed to make it a coat of arms. While there are not many family coats of arms that comprise a shield only, some go right back to the early days of armory, before there were such things as crests (see below). A great many coats of arms used by churches, schools and universities comprise only a shield, or a shield plus a motto.

[1] The British-based Barclays Bank no longer operates in South Africa, having sold its holdings in this country to domestic investors in the 1980s.

However, it has a history of about a century and a half of operation, initially in the Cape Colony and later further north, especially after it acquired ownership of the Nationale Bank of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek.

It operated in South Africa and many other parts of the world as Barclays Bank DCO (the letters standing for Dominion, Colonial and Overseas).

Sad to say it has abandoned its arms in their proper form. For some years it rendered them as a highly stylised logo, usually in white on a turquoise background.

Ironically, since the switch to this colour scheme took place before the sale of the South African bank, its successor, named First National Bank, still uses the white-and-turquoise colour scheme.

Barclays, however, has moved on, and uses an even stranger stylisation.

The arms of Barclays Bank,[1] for instance, are just a silver shield, charged with a black eagle, in turn charged with three silver crowns. And the arms of Port Elizabeth’s St Mary’s Cathedral likewise comprise just a shield.

And a coat of arms that comprises other elements, such as a crest, can be simplified by displaying it as a shield only.

The term coat of arms is derived from the garment called the surcoat, which knights took to wearing in the 11th century to cover their armour.

The design they wore on the surcoat (front and back) was transferred to the shield. Afterwards the design on the shield was also called a coat of arms.

The term is also applied to a more elaborate assembly of elements. It might incorporate a helmet and crest (see What is a crest?), mantling, a motto and other things besides.

It is customary to refer to the entire assemblage as a coat of arms, but it is more correct to call that armorial bearings, armorial ensigns or an armorial achievement.