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Blazon

Gules, two arrows in saltire heads upwards Argent, barbed and flighted Or, debruised by a lozenge Argent, fimbriated Or, charged with fourteen larmes Azure.
(Glossary of Heraldic Terms)

Significance

The badge is that of HMCS NIOBE, the Canadian naval liaison office in London, England, which inherited the name from one of the two original vessels of the Royal Canadian Navy. Niobe, wife of King Amphion of Thebes (as a woman represented heraldically by the lozenge) boasted of her fourteen children. The titaness Leto (who had only two children) decided to punish her boasting and sent her son and daughter Apollo and Artemis to slay Niobe's children with their bows (the two arrows). Niobe, grief-stricken, wept for her slain family (the fourteen teardrops) in the midst of their spilt blood (the red field). Zeus took pity on her and turned her into a rock on Mt. Sipylus where she supposedly still cries when the snow melts (the white in the lozenge).

Remarks

Office of the Senior Canadian Naval Officer in London, UK (1946 - 1965)

Colours

White and red

Battle Honours

Atlantic 1940–45; Gulf of St. Lawrence 1942, 1944.

References

Badges Of The Canadian Navy by Arbuckle, J. Graeme. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 1987.