The Icon-Banner of St. George

Did you know?

The Icon-Banner of Saint George in the King’s College Chapel was commissioned in 2011 in blessed memory of Robert Darwin Crouse. It replaces the damaged banner of Saint George and the Dragon that was presented to the University of King’s College in 1907 by Earl Grey, Governor-General of Canada, 1904-1911. The original banner was one of nine embroidered and appliquéd flags commissioned by Lord Grey presented to distinguished Canadian universities. According to L. A. M. Lovekin, c.1910,

It is the intention of the Governor General to give these banners to different educational institutions, where, it is hoped, they will unconsciously help to infuse into the rising generation a sentiment for idealism, teaching young Canadians that it is the duty of every individual, after the fashion of St. George, to kill the Dragon of evil wherever it may be found.

Produced by aristocratic English women with connections to Lord Grey, he wrote to his aunt, Lady Wantage:

If these banners, hanging like silent sermons on the wall of colleges, make their message felt here and there, and convert one out of 10,000 into a Hero, they will more than justify their cost and all the heart and labour put into them.

The current banner in memory of Robert Crouse is a close copy of the original banner and was created by Taras Lesiv, an icon-writer at the Lviv Academy of Fine Arts in Western Ukraine. The icon-writer has made slight changes in the representation of the image in keeping with traditional icon writing, but he has highlighted the roses to call to mind the magnificent rose garden of Father Crouse that delighted all visitors to his ancestral home.