Elizabeth Roads


Elizabeth Ann Roads, LVO is a Scottish herald, currently the Snawdoun Herald; in July 2018 she retired as Lyon Clerk at the Court of the Lord Lyon in favour of Russell Hunter.

Personal life and education

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. She married Christopher Roads in 1983, and they have two sons Timothy and William and a daughter Emily.

Heraldic career

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.
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.

Honours and appointments

Arms