Here is the coat of arms of the one man who has exercised great influence on Thurrock over nearly 300 years. The arms of William Palmer, who founded Palmer's school in 1706, were adopted by the school in 1935, replacing Thor's Oak misrepresentation of the origin of the name Thurrock. These splendid arms are recorded in the Heralds' Visitation of London in 1633. They are: silver, a black lion rearing up with red claws, teeth and tongue between three silver palmers' staves, heads, ends and rests in gold. The crest a golden lion rearing up having a red tongue, grasping a palmer's staff as in the arms.

The name Palmer is said to originate in the practice of pilgrims to the Holy Land carrying palm branches.

The motto, adopted at the suggestion of another Palmer's School master, Alfred Gallimore, is from Horace ‘Monumentum aere perennius - A monument more lasting than bronze'. No motto could be more appropriate: the William Palmer Trust continues to this day as Palmer's Sixth Form College.

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