The Pussers’ Mark                                   
                                                                   

 In the three hundred years that we have shared this Rock with the military, we have become familiar with many of their little habits. One of the most enduring, is to stamp every one of their possessions with a small arrowhead or crowsfoot, or as the Navy call it; the Pussers’ Mark.

It is the symbol which denotes MoD ownership of each and every artefact that it is stamped into. More correctly called a pheon, it is an heraldic device that has been in use by the MoD’s various antecedents for around three and a half centuries and, as corporate logos go, that takes some beating. So where did it all start? To find the answer we have to go back to the England of William and Mary, immediately after James II was deposed.

The Glorious Revolution, like most revolutions, relied on treachery. When William’s fleet landed at Brixham in November 1688 it was in direct response to the birth of a son (in June) to James II. That son was to be brought up a Catholic, which put the fear of God into the nobles and the English establishment; their lands and titles had been passed down to them as Protestants, having generally been confiscated from Catholics. The idea of a Catholic monarch on the throne might easily mean the loss of everything they had. So they put their faith in the Protestant William of Orange and his wife Mary and set about deposing their king. 

James II would not believe that his own daughter and son in law were about to invade and consequently William landed unopposed. The only positive thing that can be said about the Glorious Revolution is that it was bloodless. Bloodless - on the day that is - for William quickly protected his position. He soon massacred the Macdonalds at Glencoe, for missing the final cut-off date for swearing allegiance. He butchered James II’s army at the Battle of the Boyne and he passed what became The Act of Settlement ensuring that to this day no Catholic would ever sit on the English throne.

After the revolution, came the queue for rewards. Near its head was Henry Sydney, Earl of Romney, who from June1679 to January 1682 had been ambassador at the Hague and who “had in his hands the threads of much important negotiation, both public and private, with William III of Orange” to quote Henry’s own diary. Henry was appointed Master General of Ordnance; responsible for the King’s gunners and artillery. One of his early tasks was to try to reduce the level of theft of stores and equipment and to that end he decided to mark every piece. The symbol he chose was the pheon from his family coat of arms and from that day to this, every item of MoD stores has been so marked. It is significant that in heraldry the pheon denotes readiness for military service, making it an entirely appropriate logo for all things military.   

 

                                                                 

                                                                                Henry Sydney

First published at Gibraltar Magazine April 2004.            Paul Hodkinson.