As one of the first heraldry enthusiasts in British Columbia, Anglican minister Arthur John Beanlands designed the provincial Shield of Arms with its motto 'Splendor Sine Occasu', meaning "Splendour without diminishment." The shield itself is supported by a Wapiti stag and a Bighorn sheep ram to represent the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. This provincial shield of arms was granted by King Edward VII on March 31, 1906.

Beanlands was born in Durham, England in 1857 and became a deacon in 1881 and a priest in 1883. He came to Victoria's Christ Church Cathedral in 1884. One of the first directors of the Natural History Society of B.C., he was commissioned by the government to write British Columbia, Its Present Resources and Future Possibilities, A Brief Attempt to Demonstrate the Value of the Province (Victoria: "The Colonist"; Printing and Publishing, 1893). He married Sophie Pemberton in 1905. She was later known as the artist Sophie Deane-Drummond. He resigned in 1909 and returned to England where he died in 1917.

BOOKS:

British Columbia, Its Present Resources and Future Possibilities, A Brief Attempt to Demonstrate the Value of the Province (Victoria: "The Colonist"; Printing and Publishing, 1893)

[BCBW 2004] "Early B.C." "Religion" "1850-1900"