for which he had been campaigning. Among his works on other topics were two with royal connections—Regal Records, or a Chronicle of the Coronation of the Queens Regnant of England, prompted by the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837, and The Conqueror and his Companions, published in two volumes in 1874. Planché's personal life inspired two works. In 1864 he published A Corner of Kent, or some account of the parish of Ash-next-Sandwich, the result of three years' work on what was originally intended as a short guidebook to antiquities within the parish of his son-in-law, the Rev. Henry Mackarness. In 1872 he published his autobiography, a two-volume work entitled The Recollections and Reflections of J. R. Planché (Somerset Herald): a professional biography, containing many anecdotes of his life in the theatre. In addition, Planché produced over 100 papers and articles on a wide range of topics. His obituary in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association mentions in passing such topics as the following: Naval uniforms of Great Britain, early armorial bearings, processional weapons, horn-shaped headdresses of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the clarion, the Stanley crest, ancient and medieval tapestries, armorials of Ferres and Peverel, the Cokayne monuments at Ashbourne, the tilting and other helmets, the family of Giffard, the Earls of Strigul (the Lords of Chepstow), relics of Charles I, the Earls and Dukes of Somerset, the statuary of the west front of Wells Cathedral, various effigies, brasses and portraits, the first Earl of Norfolk, the family of Fettiplace, monuments in Shrewsbury Abbey, the Neville monuments, the Earls of Sussex, of Gloucester and of Hereford, and the Fairford windows. Heraldic career His antiquarian studies led Planché to take an interest in heraldry. He had published several papers on heraldic topics in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association before publishing in 1852 The Pursuivant of Arms, or, Heraldry founded upon facts. As indicated by the subtitle, Planché was concerned with verifiable facts, as opposed to the unfounded theories perpetuated by many earlier heraldic writers. In the view of eminent herald Sir Anthony Wagner, Planché rewrote the early history of heraldry. Two years later a vacancy occurred at the College of Arms, the office responsible for administering English heraldic affairs. Planché was offered, and accepted, the position of Rouge Croix Pursuivant, one of the four junior-most officers of arms. Some years previously he had indicated his interest