William David Hamilton Sellar, Lord Lyon King of Arms

William David Hamilton Sellar, MVO, FRHistS, FSA (Scot) (27 February 1941 – 26 January 2019) served as Lord Lyon King of Arms from 2008 to 2014.

Born in 1941. Sellar read history at Oxford University, graduating as Bachelor of Arts before gaining a law degree (LLB) from the University of Edinburgh. He qualified as a solicitor in 1966, and in 1968 joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Edinburgh, where he was elected an Honorary Fellow in 1997. He was appointed Lord Lyon in 2008, until his retirement in 2014. In the same year he retired he was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order.

Great-grandson of William Sellar born in 1837 in Mortlach, Banffshire, and descendant of “400 years of blacksmiths” in the neighbouring parish of Botriphnie, his own arms recall his ancestral origins by the inclusion of a blacksmith’s hammer.

• Wikipedia contributors. (2022, June 19). David Sellar. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:12, July 25, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Sellar&oldid=10938...
• William David Hamilton Sellar, MVO, BA, LLB, LLD, FRHistS, FSAScot: A memoir. Hector L. MacQueen. Edinburgh Centre for Private LawCentre for Legal History. < link > The paper surveys David’s published output, highlighting the findings of his pioneering researches in Highland clan and Scottish legal history.
• Obituary: David Sellar, Lord Lyon King of Arms and law academic. 11th March 2019 < heraldscotland.com > retrieved 23 July 2022.
• David Sellar, historian of Scotland and Scots law, receives an honorary LLD. < link >. On 23 June 2016, the University of Glasgow conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on David Sellar of the University of Edinburgh. He was presented by Professor Mark Godfrey of the University of Glasgow. Professor Godfrey's oration is reproduced below. “David Sellar is the most influential Scottish legal historian of his generation. …”