Attached is the result of one year of working with the Heraldry Office in Dublin. And so, if anyone ever searches for a Soden Coat of Arms , our lineage now has one in Ireland!
The meaning of this Coat of Arms is several fold:
The 3 Saracen heads are from the SODEN embroidery and the SODEN sarcophagus located in Ahamplish, Co. Sligo, Ireland. This links James Arthur Soden to the history of Sodens both in Ireland, and in England, as the 3 heads form part of the Coat of Arms that is in England.
DUCIMUS comes from my father’s badge of the 405 Pathfinder’s Squadron in WW2. DUCIMUS means “We Lead.”
We intentionally had the 3 heads looking upwards as leaders look forward and upwards….as did the men of the Air in WW2
The white band across the shield stands for the entrails of the bombers.
The red is for our dad’s Canadian citizenship.
The hand and sword above the helmet is from the Soden silver of Ireland, of which only two pieces remain in existence (that I know of) and from a button that must have been on a tunic in war times.
I/we hope you like what we have done, not only in our father’s memory, but for all SODENs to be proud of.
Marg Soden, Thornbury, Ontario, Canada May 2022