The Arms of Lord Norrie
Noel Cox
first published (Spring 2002) 84 New Zealand Armorist 6-7
Lieutenant-General the Right Honourable Sir Charles Willoughby Moke, Baron Norrie, GCMG GCVO CB DSO MC KStJ, was Governor-General of New Zealand 1952-57. Born 1893, and educated at Eton, he joined the 11th Hussars in 1913. General Officer Commanding 30th Corps (Middle East) 1941-42, his last army post was as Commander Royal Armoured Corps in 1943.
Sir Charles was then appointed Governor of South Australia, where he remained from 1944 to 1952, when he came to New Zealand. After his retirement he was Chancellor of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (1960-68), the British Order associated with overseas and diplomatic services.
In 1957 Sir Charles was created Baron Norrie, of Wellington, New Zealand, and of Upton, Gloucestershire, in the peerage of the United Kingdom. He died in 1977. Lord Norrie's eldest son, the second baron, lives in England, as do other members of his immediate family.
The earliest known members of Lord Norrie's family were from Thorout, in Flanders, were they latterly lived in Wynendale Castle. Charles Moke, MD, Professor of Leyden University, was a pioneer of the coffee industry in Brazil, and was the first of the family to settle in England. Lord Norrie was his great grandson. George Moke, first of the family based in England and the United States of America, married New York heiress Margaret Norrie in 1854.
In 1915 Lord Norrie's father obtained a grant of armorial bearings from the College of Arms. When Sir Charles received an hereditary peerage, he was granted supporters. For these he chose dark bay racehorses supporting between their forelegs a frond of New Zealand fern Proper.
As heir to the Moke and Norrie families, Lord Norrie's armorial bearings are marshalled. First and fourth, for the Norrie family, Ermine, on a pale Gules three helmets Argent. Second and third, for the Moke family, Or, on a chevron Azure between two poplar trees eradicated in chief Proper, and a mullet of six points in base of the second, a key the wards downwards of the first.
Lord Norrie also had two crests. The first, an elephant's head erased Sable, tusked Argent, supporting with the trunk a garb Or (for the Norrie family). The second was a stag's head couped, holding in the mouth a branch of poplar Proper, between the attires a key as in the Arms pendant from a chain Or (for the Moke family).
Bibliography:
(1997) The New Zealand Armorist no 64 p 8