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Getting The Royal
Treatment
A Royal
Warrant is the coat of arms of the reigning monarch of England.
It is granted by the Sovereign and gives the holder the privilege
of using the Royal Arms in connection with his or her trade or business.
 In
order to receive the Warrant, firms must have supplied goods direct
to the Royal Household Departments for a minimum of three years.
Warrants become void on the death of the reigning monarch and had
to be reapplied for with each new monarch.
Hiram
Walker & Sons Ltd. was granted the Warrant of Queen Victoria
on September 17, 1898. Queen Victoria’s coat of arms appeared
on Canadian Club labels soon after.
On the
Queen’s death, Hiram Walker applied for and received the Warrants
of subsequent Monarch, Edwards VII, George V, George VI and Queen
Elizabeth II.
During
the later years of Queen Victoria’s life, Hiram Walker also
held the Warrant for the Prince of Wales. Canadian Club labels with
both the Arms of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales are quite
rare.
After
holding the Royal Warrant for Queen Elizabeth for 10 years, the
Warrant was reviewed and withdrawn. The action was probably political
— the Queen no doubt wished to endorse whiskies made in Great
Britain rather than a "foreign" country.
Hiram
Walker & Sons was the only North American distiller to have
been granted a Royal Warrant.
Queen Victoria
Goes Canadian
The events
leading up to Queen Victoria drinking Canadian Club and Hiram Walker
receiving the Royal Warrant are rather interesting.
Queen
Victoria’s physician, Sir William Jenner, ordered her to cease
drinking claret and champagne; he prescribed as a digestive Canadian
Club Whisky and mineral water, in the proportions of four parts
of water to one of whisky.
The Prince
of Wales tried the prescription, liked it, and it was soon adopted
as the favourite tipple in the Prince’s "set."
"The
drink now in vogue in the clubs of the metropolis of the Empire
is Walker’s Canadian Club Rye… Sir William Jenner’s
prescription has the endorsement of physicians as well as the pleasant
tingle of aerated waters."
"The
enormous increase in the consumption of Walker’s Canadian Club
has been largely due to the desire of the public for a mild spirit,
which makes a most beneficial beverage with cool mineral waters."
from a newspaper article c. 1900
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