Arms: Quarterly Gules and Or on a Dance Ermine between two Lions passant guardant crowned and counterchanged three Pot Marigold Flowers (Calendula Officinalis) proper.

Badge: On a Plate a Pot Marigold Flower (Calendula Officinalis) proper charged with a Lion's Face crowned Gules.

The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital was founded in 1771 by William Fellowes of Shotesham Park.  Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford he followed his father to Lincolns Inn where he was admitted a member in 1723. 

In an century notable for many acts of generosity by the wealthy towards the needs of the sick and poor, Fellowes was probably the most generous of the Norfolk landowners of his time in this respect.  He was instrumental in the establishment of what may well have been the very first cottage hospital in England, known as Shotesham Infirmary, for the care of the parish sick.

In 1758, Benjamin Gooch, apothecary surgeon of  great ability and near neighbour and friend of Fellowes, was asked by Thomas Hayter, Bishop of Norwich, to visit all the great hospitals in London, concerning erecting a general hospital for the County of Norfolk and the City of Norwich jointly.  After Bishop Hayter's death in 1762 Fellowes eventually stepped in to 'revive and vigorously prosecute the plan'.

The Hospital arms are based on the arms of Fellowes (which feature a Dance Ermine between three Lions' Heads murally crowned) and feature a lion each for Norfolk and Norwich and the marigolds are a symbol of healing.

J P Brooke-Little, then Richmond Herald chose the pot marigold as it was used medicinally by herbalists and secondly as it resembles the sun which is itself a symbol of health and healing; "As I know of no example of this flower being used in heraldry, I thought it would make a suitable badge, but have placed a lion's head on it to reflect more closely the arms and underline the connection with Norwich and Norfolk."

Her Majesty the Queen has granted a licence for the arms of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital to be used by the new Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital which is now outside the City of Norwich.

. . . condensed from an article by Tony Sims in The Norfolk Standard vol. 2, number 11 (August 1981)