Order of the Pelican

Heraldry
(Tinctureless) A pelican in its piety. (Tinctureless) A chapeau.
Award Information
Type: Patent & Polling Order Founded: 1/6/1979 by Martin and Neptha Premiere(s): Olaf the Maedi-Ogre Recipients: Visit the Order of Precedence.

Companionship in the Order of the Pelican is granted to those who have excelled in service. Members of this order are often referred to as "Pelicans".

Titles

• Master/Mistress
• Alternate Titles are available for substitution.

Token/Regalia

• (Tinctureless) A pelican in its piety.
• (Tinctureless) A pelican vulning itself.
• (Tinctureless) A chapeau.
• Pelicans may display a full achievement including silver or white helm, torse and mantling, crest and supporters. Pelicans may use a pelican in its piety as either crest or supporter, or may display a cap of maintenance upon the helm, in place of torse and crest.
• Order regalia includes:
  • Pelican badge of the order dependant from a chain
  • A blue cloak with the pelican badge on left breast
  • A red chapeau turned up plumetty goutty de sang
  • any other article of clothing, jewelry, equipment or flag featuring any badge of the order.

More Information

The Board of Directors of the Society, under the name of the Imperial Electors, created the Imperial Order of the Pelican, and admitted Boncueur de Myrobolan as the founding member. -- Wilhelm von Schlüssel's history

The first Pelican created by the Crown of Caid was Mistress Catriona nicChlurain. Mistress Catriona, one of the cornerstones of the Barony of the Angels, was elevated on January 13, 1979 Sadly, Mistress Catriona passed away in March 2000.

From a portion of an interview by Eadwynne of Runedun with Siegfried von Hőflichskeit, Aug AS XXI (1987). https://history.westkingdom.org/ahp/attachments/20/InterviewWithSiegfried.pdf

Siegfried: "The Order of the Pelican was invented by the Board of Directors in the early 1970s. And there were a lot of us who were very much opposed to it. And the reason was that originally we felt that the Laurel really should cover that because what the Laurel was supposed to cover was excellence in something in the service to the SCA. This particular period though had a lot of strain between the then Kingdom of the West and the Board of Directors. The SCA was eventually incorporated in October of 1968. And the people who did the incorporation became the first members of the Board of Directors. By the early seventies, they were calling themselves the Imperial Electors and inventing awards. And that essentially forced the issue of whether the Board was essentially a medieval function or a modern business function. The Board gave three Pelicans, three Board Level Pelicans, and of those, one person refused it, one person is totally inactive, and the third person was immediately given a multi-kingdom Laurel by the monarchs of all the existing kingdoms on the grounds that if the person was going to be a Peer, they were going to be a Peer as if it were an “honest peerage.” The Board never gave any more Pelicans, but they invented the Pelican award for service. Pelicans weren’t given out in the Kingdom of the West for a while after that, then about a year and a half later, one of our very respected Peers requested that he might be allowed to give up his Laurel in exchange for a Pelican because he felt that he gotten his Laurel for service, and the Pelican was what that was for. It would be only fair. There was a lot of debate about that, and they finally decided to do it. And that sort of legitimized the Pelican in this Kingdom and subsequently there have been Pelicans."

BRIEF AND INFORMAL HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF THE PELICAN, Compiled by Hilary of Serendip, 1989. https://history.westkingdom.org/ahp/ahp_doc.php?ahp_id=22

This is a summary of the Steward's correspondence file on the Order of the Pelican. Please note that "Imperial" is no longer proper for the corporate level of the SCA; the word appears here only because it was current at the time under discussion. It was theoretically abandoned early in 1974, but stayed in constant use in official documents for another year or two, and lingers in common speech even to this day - where it should be vigorously discouraged whenever it appears. The discontinuance of both the corporate-level peerage and the "I" word stem from the same developing sense that the corporation needs to stay separate from the internal workings of the Current Middle Ages.

• 3-72 - The Board proposes to create an "Imperial" order of the Pelican to honor service to the central organization of the SCA. Varying ideas, including one version which had several degrees, with non-armigerous Companions and armigerous Esquires besides the peerage level. The possibility of a kingdom version of the award appears in the very earliest proposal.
• 10-72 - The Board grants the first order of the Pelican unto Boncueur, Registrar of the Society.
• 12-72 - Boncueur raises all sorts of interesting questions that might well have been considered before opening the order. Not much gets done.
• 9-73 - Discussion as to what to call somebody with the award still continues. Boncueur adamant against Master; proposes Baron or Chevalier. (Internal analysis of the letter shows that Douglas Brownbeard holds an Imperial Pelican at the time, and that there is one other, Robert of Westmarch.)
• 10-73 - Letter from Boncueur to Brownbeard and Robert of Westmarch, addressing them as companions in the order. Includes reference to the existence of kingdom Pelicans for Thorwald the Grim and John of Isleway, possibly awarded without reference to the Board.
• 1-74 - Westmarch's response points out that Corpora II (1972) gave kings the right to give the Pelican and didn't tell them they had to touch base with anybody. He argues against the Board giving peerages and patents, since they said they were going to stay out of the conduct of the medieval side of the SCA.
• 1-74 - Letter from Clerk of Board to Jon de Cles - mentions that Board Minutes don't include the discussion he remembers, which covered thought that kingdom Pelicans should agree to new members of their order, and that the first one should have consent of members of Imperial order and have special privileges including direct communication with Board.
• 3-74 - Letter from Boncueur to the Crowns and Seneschals conveys moratorium on all new Pelicans until statute issued for order.
• 7-74 - Statute passed; printed in that year's volume of Corpora (#4). Includes both Board and Kingdom awards. The Kingdom orders are supposed to poll only in-kingdom after there are at least 5 domestic Pelicans, but must go to Boncueur until then; Board order polls those with Imperial awards only.
• 7-74 - Polling letters in file recommend Lady Linda-Muireall von Katzenbrasse to receive Imperial Pelican, and a group of six to become the first West kingdom members of the order: Sir Steffan de Lorraine (to be principal), Sir Robert of Dunharrow, Mistress Geraldine of Toad Hall, Mistress Karina of the Far West, Lady Bevin Fraser of Sterling, and Lord Hal von Ravn.
• 8-74 - Pelican added to the By-Laws.
• 7-75 - Polling letter in file recommends Imperial Pelican for Robin Devilmark, Clerk of the Chancery.
• 9-75 - Letter from Boncueur to Alfgar the Sententious; says Douglas and Robert date from 10-73, and he believes two more given that month, bringing total to 5. This presumably means Linda-Muireall (the cited letter is mis-dated) and Robin, but it's impossible to be sure. He says that the kingdom Pelicans given before the statute was issued are being recognized, but it's supposed to be followed on new ones. He adds that he knows of John of Isleway and El of the Two Knives in the East, but does not know if there are any in the Middle or Atenveldt. The letter includes much discussion of how to deal with an inactive Principal, John of Isleway having departed this (Known) world before the duties were assigned.
• 10-75 - Letter from Brownbeard to Boncueur - Board hasn't yet given the 4th and 5th Imperial Pelicans cited above; they're trying to work out something with the Crown of the West, to avoid the sense of unreality that one feels as a holder of the Board-granted award.
• 10-75 - Letter from Boncueur to Alfgar the Sententious - recommends kingdoms ignore the rule of 5 and go on making their own Pelicans, on the grounds of political reality. He appears to be advising the East to go ahead and create Balin the Fairhaired (Baron Beyond the Mountain) a member of the order, as Alfgar had requested, even though there wouldn't be time to do all the polling involved and get responses to the Crown by the planned event. (The style of the letter is convoluted and obscure, so it's impossible to be sure that's what was meant. However, it seems to be what happened.)
• 1-76 - Letter from Brownbeard to Boncueur - says he announced at 12th Night that the Board had awarded Pelicans to Linda-Muireall and Robin in accord with decision made previous September, but it was moot because the former had received kingdom Pelican in October, and the latter at 12th Night before he made the announcement. He also forwards recommendation for William of the Shire for Imperial Pelican.
• 9-76 - Letter from Steffan de Lorraine - mentions there were then 23 Pelicans in the West, including Brownbeard and Boncueur as Imperial (Linda-Muireall and Robin are on the list as Western) and Luise of Woodsholme from Atenveldt.
• 12-76 - Letter from Karina to Brownbeard recommending Alfgar for Board Pelican.

Somewhere in the next year, the Board abandoned the intent to bestow Pelicans - when, exactly, the correspondence file is silent. I found the date elsewhere while researching the chronology for the Known World Handbook, but the reference is lost again now and there's no time to hunt it up. In any case, there is no indication that the Board ever gave more than the original three (or five, depending on how you count the two duplicate) awards. Trusting this information will be useful or entertaining, I remain ever yours in service,

Mistress Hilary of Serendip, Steward of the Society [c. 1989]

Historian Note: It should be noted that the event where the first West Kingdom Pelicans were instituted (you would have to look at the Calendar on the home page, and go to the year, and the event), Purgatorio, A.S. IX (1974) has some explanation as well.