The Rev. Robert Black became interested in heraldry as a Cub Scout in the early 1960s. When learning of his family's Scottish heritage, he began a precocious correpondence with a very kind, helpful and indulgent Lyon Clerk. The immediate consequence was that his young energies were gently redirected, first, towards genealogy, a passion that still delights him; and subsequently towards history, in which he eventually completed undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees. (He has taught history part-time since 1986 at Trinity College, University of Toronto.)

He has over the years written a number of history-based articles on heraldry for The Coat of Arms and Heraldry in Canada and for some time was editor of Hogtown Heraldry, newsletter of the Toronto Branch of the RHSC. As a result of this scholarship, and research-based efforts in the city and University of Toronto to obtain grants of arms, he was approached in 1989 to become the first extramural "technical consultant" working with the first Chief Herald. His output was an eventual thirty-plus grants with some connection to his particular abilities, connections and interests.

Approached to consider an appointment to the Heraldic Authority, he was forced to make a choice between that deep devotion and his sense of personal vocation. Having been ordained as an Anglican priest in 1980, and completing his doctorate in 1989, he had accepted in 1992 a demanding appointment as the first Humphrys Chaplain of Trinity College. It changed him. He experienced the emergence of a "vocation within a vocation" and was training to become a Jungian Analyst. (This is classed in Ontario as a psychotherapist, and internationally as an "analytical psychologist.") After much soul-searching, he chose instead to complete his training. Since 2005, except for his part-time appointment teaching history, his private Toronto-based practise in Jungian analysis is now Robert's full-time occupation.

The thought of C.G. Jung provides Robert with a rich matrix within which to connect, amplify and elaborate his notions on heraldry, genealogy, history, religion and psychology -- how it all connects, that it makes sense, and ways in which it can make life deeper. One may therefore reasonably expect a few more original articles sharing some of what he has discovered.

Honours and awards

• 1996 Fellow of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada