Conrad Swan

Sir Conrad Marshall John Fisher Swan KCVO FSA (born 13 May 1924) was a long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. Having been first appointed to work at the College in 1962, he rose to the office of Garter Principal King of Arms in 1992, a position he held until 1995. He was the first Canadian ever to be appointed to the College of Arms.

Conrad Swan was born in 1924 in British Columbia, Canada. His father was descended from the Polish noble family of Święcicki (Coat of arms of Jastrzębiec). After emigrating to Canada in 1884 the family surname became Swan.

Swan devoted much of his life to travelling. Having decided to make a lifetime career in the Indian Army, Swan was sent by the India Office (the UK governmental office responsible for India at the time) to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Having completed the course there, he proceeded to India and was commissioned and appointed to the Madras Regiment, the oldest in the country. Indian Independence (1947) caused him to make other decisions "it being the end of a chapter". Upon retirement from the Indian Army, he went directly back to Canada to take a BA and MA at the University of Western Ontario (Assumption College). During this time, he developed a keen interest in Commonwealth affairs, which brought him back to Britain, where he acquired his doctorate from Cambridge University in 1955.

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