Dr Patrick Barden, who died suddenly four days short of his 67th birthday, was the leading heraldic flagmaker in the UK. Using a twentyfirst-century development of the medieval style of painting banners, he employed vigorous colour on fine fabric. His flags and hangings adorn many distinguished venues, and his incredible output ensured that banners in the distinctive Barden style are flown daily. His infectious enthusiasm for his subject greatly encouraged many to heraldry.
His innovative approach to flag design created a new era in Scotland's heraldry. Alone among flagmakers, he never worked from drawings or photographs, taking instead as his reference the blazon or heraldic description of the coat-of-arms. Thus his work proved a rich cornucopia of colour, cross, and creature. While a rampant lion of his would certainly bear a frightening ferocity, close inspection might well show a twinkle in an eye. His reintroduction of the medieval style of square banner was his reminder that our forefathers used this pattern because it flew better, and that the rectangular pattern currently dominating our street-scapes is in fact a style developed for use at sea.
Patrick scorned flags that appeared as just so much bunting. His burst forth in full and accurate colour for every occasion - royal banners, national banners, society banners, personal banners, funeral banners, pipe banners, street banners, and parade banners as well as standards, guidons, and gonfannons, meticulously correct in every heraldic detail. His clients included clan chiefs, councils, corporations, and royalty.
His first major commissions were in 1981 for Dunfermline Abbey and Holyrood Palace, and his work immediately caught the eye of the discerning, with other assignments, including banners for Bannockburn, Dornoch Cathedral, and Killiecrankie, as well as one of the pavilions at the Glasgow Garden Festival, following in 1988. His banners provided identification for the principal subjects at the highly acclaimed 1997 exhibition on William Wallace at the Smith Art Gallery in Stirling. He considered his best productions to be the 15 banners hanging from the restored roof of Stationers' Hall in London, one of which shows the royal arms of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.
His client list covered the UK and included Lord Forte, the Lord Chancellor, the Moderator of the General Assembly, the late Duke of Argyll, and the Drambuie Liqueur Company. He was retained by Burke Nicholson of the Coca-Cola Corporation in Atlanta to create a series of banners for each member of the wider Nicholson family. The family, descended from Nicholsons in Skye, used the Scottish system of heraldic cadency, with each banner showing the correct difference of each cadet in exuberant colour.
He also made the banners for the half-dozen community councils in north-east Scotland for
ceremonies where their new coats-of-arms were formally acclaimed and presented by a herald from the Court of the Lord Lyon. His most recent work included plans for a series of exhibition banners showing the Scottish versions of coats-of-arms of various members of the royal family.
Patrick presented his own enigma: born and educated in Eastbourne of English parents, he spoke English in a Scots accent, and was fluent in six languages, including Gaelic. His interest in heraldry had begun at age nine, and thereafter he collected and drew coats-of-arms wherever he was. As a student he once stood at an Aberdeen bus stop, completing his drawing of the Aberdeen coat-of-arms then shown on the sides of corporation buses.
He trained as a vet in Bristol, with fieldwork in Wales and Skye, before becoming an assistant lecturer in animal husbandry in Edinburgh for 14 years, during which time he obtained a doctorate in copper metabolism and a fellowship by examination of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and took postings to Argentina and Chile (he never overcame his horror of what he had seen happening to Chileans under the Allende regime).
He left Edinburgh in 1971 for posts in a succession of international companies - Bayer, Roussel, Pfizer, and Ciba-Geigy - working in England, Germany, Switzerland, and South America on anticoccidials and anabolic steroids, gladly using the experiences to widen his language abilities.
During his time with Ciba-Geigy he shared a laboratory block with a paint scientist, whose help secured the breakthrough he had searched for in being able successfully to apply airbrushed waterproof paint to lightweight fabric. Thus he had invented a sturdy flag which nevertheless could fly in the merest of zephyrs. At age 54, he gave up all to return to Scotland as a heraldic flagmaker and designer, setting up a studio in Alloa. At his home in nearby Rumbling Bridge he kept a few pedigree Highland cattle, whom he always addressed in Gaelic.
A one-time chairman of the Heraldry Society of Scotland, he proved a charismatic leader and generously provided many banners for society use. While his agile mind provided a stream of information to those who asked, he proved equally willing to make constructive criticism if he felt that heraldic establishment deserved it.
From his detailed scholarship flowed a stream of articles, papers, publications, and lectures. His presentations were erudite and entertaining for, above all, he believed that heraldry could be fun. His humour was his hallmark, a genial grin and a laughter that would burst forth. His was a skill that
is not easily replaced, and his memorial lies not only in the hearts of his friends but in the banners that decorate Scotland.
Vet, heraldist, and linguist, he was also a musicologist and churchman, being a one-time elder of St Giles and, until his death, precentor at Greyfriars Kirk. His interest in chivalry led to his being appointed assistant director of ceremonies to the Order of St John. This was no empty appointment, for he took the nobility of thought and deed of chivalry very seriously indeed.
He was predeceased by his only child. His son, Dr Alasdair Barden, was killed in a flying accident in Lewis in 1998. He was sustained in his loss by his strong Christian faith.
He is survived by his sister Edna, brother George, daughter-in-law Donna, and his grandsons Donald and Tearlach.
Patrick Barden SBStJ, BVSc, PhD, FRCVS, FSAScot, Born July 16,1934 at Eastbourne; died July 12, 2001 at Kinross
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