The son of a prosperous surgeon, in Putney, Charles Robert Malden was educated locally and, at the age of 11 encouraged, against his will, to join the Royal Navy.

He saw service in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and America, becoming a skilled surveyor and promoted Lieutenant. In 1824 he joined HMS Blonde under Lord Byron as Navigating Officer and Surveyor on the voyage to the Sandwich Islands to return the bodies of the King and Queen who had died from measles during their visit to England.

On the return voyage an Island was discovered which was named Malden in his honour. The Island was subsequently used for the mining of guano for the fertiliser trade, and in the mid 20th century used as a testing site for Britain’s nuclear weapons.

Before the introduction, 350 years ago, of the Public Register in Scotland of all Armorial Bearings, records of coats of arms were kept in armorials.  These were usually booklets which contained the coats of arms of royalty, nobles and gentry

These booklets were of paper and occasionally vellum, and the coats of arms were painted; drawn – with an indication of the colours or written lists.

Individual Scottish material appears in armorials until the Union of the nations in 1707.

This illustrated survey, is the result of twenty years work by Eilean Malden and looks at some 140 armorials from 1380 to 1707 and gives a data sheet for each which contains details of title; location; date; binding; watermarks; size and provenance and the total number of coats of arms contained