Today is the last day of Dr Richard Baker's tenure as Principal of Achievements and the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies. He first came to work here in 1988, and quickly became our go-to expert on all things heraldic. What Richard doesn't know about heraldry, isn't worth knowing!
Richard is an Academician of the Académie Internationale d’Héraldique and President of the International Federation of Schools of Family History. He became a Trustee of the Heraldry Society in 2013 and is responsible for their society’s examinations programme. Richard will also be the President of The International Congress of Heraldic and Genealogical Sciences, to be held at Cambridge in 2022, and will remain a popular figure at heraldic and genealogical events around the UK.
For the last ten years, Richard has been the Principal of both Achievements and IHGS, and he will be missed by us all. Despite not being able to give him the send off he deserves, due to coronavirus restrictions, we wish him a very happy retirement and will celebrate with him next summer.
Richard is to be succeeded by Dr David Wright, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Society of Genealogists. He is well known to genealogists for his East Kent Probate Index as well as for his several books on Kent genealogy, including Tracing Your Kent Ancestry which was published in 2016.
