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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2006-05 > 1147750454


From: "Ford Mommaerts-Browne" <>
Subject: Re: OT Sir Anthony Wagner - Frederick Lewis Weis
Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 00:44:06 -0300
References: <408.1d761ea.3198a34a@aol.com> <001701c67796$561d5340$5c3afc18@om.cox.net> <1147703069.020606.296110@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>


----- Original Message -----
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Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 11:24 AM
Subject: Re: OT Sir Anthony Wagner - Frederick Lewis Weis


| "Ford Mommaerts-Browne" wrote:
| > I know that one person at wikipedia deleted reference to Sir Anthony and others, calling them charlatans.
|
| Sir Anthony Wagner certainly wasn't a charlatan- some of the Heralds
| could have been called that (Sir William Betham springs to mind, so
| lambasted by Horace Round), but one of Wagner's successors as Garter
| described him to me as the greatest genealogist of his generation,
| perhaps even of the whole 20th Century. (I wonder now if he meant just
| the UK, or the whole world!)


The whole world would not have been inaccurate, IMHO. He has also been described as the greatest mind of the College of Arms since Camden.


| He was practically a born genealogist- I
| think he was accepted by the College of Arms while still a schoolboy,
| and was genuinely wedded to the subject. There is an error in the
| Wikipedia entry, his autobiography was called 'A Herald's World'
| (rather than '...Way'); in it he writes about- among other things- his
| (and his wife's) ancestors, and his blindness.
| -Matthew

I found him to be a gentle and generous gentleman. Very kind and gracious. As was Lady Wagner. It was a true treat to see the two of them together. Despite the disparity of their ages, they were truly devoted to each other, and she helped him with his work after his blindness.
His devotion to genealogy was infectious. If there's a genealogy heaven, he's sure to be there, surrounded by lost scrolls, IPMs, wills and charters.


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