 Middlesex County Council decided to apply for a formal grant of arms from the College of Arms, with the addition of a heraldic "difference" to the attributed arms.Colonel Otley Parry, a justice of the peace for Middlesex and author of a book on military badges, was asked to devise an addition to the shield.The chosen addition was a "Saxon Crown", derived from the portrait of King Athelstan on a silver penny of his reign, stated to be the earliest form of crown associated with any English sovereign.