Elizabeth Roads

Elizabeth Roads is the daughter of Lt Col. James Bruce MC and his wife Mary Hope Sinclair. She was born in 1951 and educated at Lansdowne House in Edinburgh, the Cambridgeshire College of Technology, the Study Centre for Fine Art in London, and Edinburgh Napier University (LLB with distinction). She married Christopher Roads in 1983, and they have two sons Timothy and William and a daughter Emily.

Elizabeth Roads joined the staff of the Court of the Lord Lyon in 1975 and was appointed Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records in 1986. In this position, she maintains, among other things, the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland. She was appointed Linlithgow Pursuivant in 1987, becoming the first female officer of arms. This was a temporary appointment, when she represented the Lord Lyon in Canada in the discussions that led to the establishment of the Canadian Heraldic Authority. Roads was appointed Carrick Pursuivant in 1992 and promoted to Snowdoun Herald in 2010. She was appointed Secretary of the Order of the Thistle in 2014. She retired as Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records in July 2018.[2]

As Elizabeth Bruce, Roads was a founder member of the Heraldry Society of Scotland in 1977. She was Chairman of that Society in the late 1990s and is now a Fellow of the Heraldry Society of Scotland and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada. She is an Academician of the Academie Internationale d'Heraldique and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, both honours in recognition of her heraldic expertise. She has published many articles and lectures regularly on heraldic and genealogical subjects.

• 1986-2018: Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records
• 1986: Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
• 1987: Linlithgow Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary
• 1992-2010: Carrick Pursuivant of Arms
• 1996: Fellow of the Heraldry Society of Scotland (Founding Member 1977, Chairman 1997–2000, Chairman of Heraldic Exhibition "Lions and Thistles" 1995)
• 1998–2011: Hon. Treasurer, Scottish Record Society
• 2003-2008: Associate Member, L’Academie Internationale d’Heraldique
• 2004: Honorary Fellow of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada
• 2007-2016: Council Member, Scottish Records Association
• 2008-2014: Assistant Secretary, Order of the Thistle
• 2008: Academician, L'Academie Internationale d'Heraldique
• 2010: Snawdoun Herald of Arms
• 2010-2016: Chairman, Scottish Records Association
• 2013-2016: President, Old Edinburgh Club
• 2013: Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
• 2014: Secretary of the Order of the Thistle
• 2015: Guild Brother and member of Council, Guildry of Stirling
• 2015: Trustee and Vice Chair, Scottish Council on Archives
• 2017: Vice President, Heraldry Society of Scotland
• 2017: President, Bureau Permanent des Congres internationaux des sciences genealogique et heraldique
• 2018: Fellow of the Heraldry Society of New Zealand
• 2018: Fellow of The Heraldry Society[3]
• 2019: Trustee, Black Watch Museum

• Heraldry
• Pursuivant
• Herald
• The Court of the Lord Lyon
• The Heraldry Society of Scotland

• The Court of the Lord Lyon
• The Heraldry Society of Scotland