Gregor Macaulay
Following longstanding precedents, the accession of King Charles III as Sovereign of the United Kingdom was proclaimed by Garter King of Arms at St James’s Palace and by Clarenceux King of Arms at the Royal Exchange in London, and by the Lord Lyon King of Arms at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh. Norroy and Ulster King of Arms read the proclamation at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland and Wales Herald Extraordinary read it at Cardiff Castle in Wales.
Officers of arms were conspicuous in their tabards at the memorial service for the Queen in St Giles’ Cathedral, when the coffin arrived at Westminster Hall for the lying in state, at the funeral in Westminster Abbey, and in the solemn procession to Windsor. At the committal service in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, the late Queen’s styles and titles were read by Garter, who was accompanied by the Lord Lyon.
The accession proclamation for the new King as Sovereign of Canada was read by the Chief Herald of Canada at Rideau Hall, the Governor-General’s official residence in Ottawa, while that for the King as Sovereign of Australia was read by the Governor-General of Australia at the Parliament House in Canberra. Proclamations were also read in the provincial and state capitals of Canada and Australia.
The accession proclamation ceremony for the new King of New Zealand held on the steps of Parliament in Wellington on 11 September was dignified and impressive. However, it was constitutionally confused and confusing in that a central element of the ceremony, the reading of the proclamation (English version), was undertaken by an English officer of arms (New Zealand Herald); the Māori version of the proclamation was read by Parliamentary Kaumātua Kura Moeahu. New Zealand Herald also proclaimed the Queen’s (and King’s) New Zealand styles and titles at a state memorial service at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Wellington, on 26 September.
Despite his title, New Zealand Herald is an English herald, as is clearly demonstrated by the insignia he wears – a neck badge of the English version of the arms of the United Kingdom and a collar of esses incorporating two representations of the plant badge of the United Kingdom; he has worn a tabard of the arms of the United Kingdom, but only in England. He represents the English College of Arms in New Zealand, having been appointed by the English Duke of Norfolk, hereditary Earl Marshal of England.
All five previous accession proclamations in New Zealand were also read from the steps of Parliament. That in 1901 (for Edward VII) was read by the Acting Premier, the Hon. J.G. Ward, in the presence of the Governor, the Earl of Ranfurly. In 1910, Ward (by then the Rt Hon. Sir Joseph Ward KCMG, Prime Minister) read the proclamation for George V; the Governor, Lord Plunket, was absent on account of ill health. The two proclamations of 1936, for Edward VIII and George VI, were read by the Governor-General, Viscount Galway, and the proclamation of Elizabeth II in 1952 was read by the Governor-General, Lord Freyberg.
As New Zealand has no officers of arms of its own, it would have been more appropriate for the precedents of 1936 and 1952 to have been followed and for this year’s accession proclamation to have been read by the Governor-General. It is a great pity that another country’s official should take part in New Zealand’s ceremonies of state, and that the fundamental distinction between the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and the Sovereign of New Zealand should apparently not be understood at the heart of government.

New Zealand Herald reading the accession proclamation on 11 September 2022;
note his badge of the arms of the United Kingdom and the collar of esses.
Photograph from the Governor-General’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=633261074823818&set=pcb.633278404822085)

Roger Barnes’s hatchment for the Queen was both used on the order of service and displayed (above the video screen at left in the photograph above) at a memorial service for the Queen in Auckland’s Anglican cathedral on 26 November.