A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Disney Coat of Arms
By Dave Shute
Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.
THE DISNEY COAT OF ARMS
By Jim Korkis
“(Dad) is not one of those to think the family tree is terribly important because of any important connections you might have had,” Walt’s daughter Sharon recalled. “He just thinks that it’s interesting to know just where your family came from. What they did. He was proud that they were good, honest people who worked hard and amounted to something in their own little way.”
Isgny-sur-Mer is a small village on the French coast near Normandy where Allied troops landed during World War II.
From this location nine centuries earlier, French soldiers sailed to invade England and after the battles remained and established a new life. Among those soldiers was Hughes d’Isgny and his son Robert.
In that era, people were often identified by the town from where they came. So Robert d’Isgny meant it was the Robert who was from the French seacoast town. Over the decades, the name became anglicized to the more familiar “Disney”.
Some of Walt’s ancestors came over to England with William the Conqueror in 1066, and some of them ended up in the small village and parish of Norton Disney in the western boundary of the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire from around the 13th century.
St. Peter’s Church in the village has five monuments of Disneys (including Sir William, a knight) which have shields on them bearing three lions passant.
The “Disney window” in the church at Flintham, Nottinghamshire, has one quartering that is Argent, three lions passant in pale gules.
A surname like Disney may have many different Coats of Arms since it was granted to an individual rather than an entire family and passed on to the oldest son.
Just like at Ellis Island in America when immigrants arrived, medieval scribes in the 11th and 12th century often simplified or spelled names as they sounded so there were frequent variations of the name “Disney” including “Deisney” among others.
In addition, in recent years, selling family heraldry is such a big business that some examples have been fabricated so it is problematic to determine an exact Coat of Arms that belongs to Walt’s branch of the family.
According to the Disney Company, the Disney heraldry is:
Coat of Arms: Three gold fleur de lis on a red fess, representing purity or light.
Crest: A red lion passant guardant representing bravery or courage. A crest is a part of the Coat of Arms. Red symbolized a family who served in the military.
Motto: Vincit qui patitur.
Motto Translated: He conquers who endures.
A golden emblem of three lions passant in pale was installed on the archway above the draw bridge on Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle sometime between the end of June 1965 and early July 1965 in connection with the Disneyland Tencennial celebration. Decades later more accurate banners were hung on the backside of the castle.
At Walt Disney World, the Coat of Arms is prominently displayed on the Cinderella Castle archway facing Fantasyland.
(c) Disney
Cinderella’s Royal Table, known as King Stefan’s Banquet Hall until 1997, includes forty coats of arms representing some of people who were instrumental in Walt Disney World including Imagineer Roger Broggie Sr., Marc Davis, John Hench, Dick Nunis and Marty Sklar as well as the Disney Coat of Arms.
While Walt was always curious about his ancestry, he did not display his alleged Coat of Arms on his clothes, jewelry, office or home.
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Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!
In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Call Me Walt, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew
, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.
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