The armorial bearings for UCWI were designed by Mr. H Ellis Tomlinson of Thornton-le-Fyfe in Lanchasire for the sum of 120 guineas. In a letter dated February 7, 1947 from Tomlinson to Walter Adams of the Colonial Office, Tomlinson outlined a proposal with notes on possible designs for the College's armorial bearing, parts of which were incorporated in the final approved design. The initial design called for seven crowns to represent the three islands Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad), two island groups (Leewards and Windwards) and two mainland colonies (British Guiana and British Honduras) to be served by UCWI.

The reaction to the suggestion of crowns in the crest was not favourable. In a letter to Tomlinson dated January 22, 1948, the Principal noted that "the Colonies are not very keen on being represented by crowns. It is a stupid point, but some of them are Crown Colonies in the strict sense and others are not. The latter consider themselves in a superior position and thus resent the implication of a Crown Colony... I am afraid that political reactions interfere with heraldry." Taylor also pointed out that a pelican would likely be acceptable as the crest as "it is used in Oxford and Cambridge by the Corpus Christie Colleges as a sign of piety."

After consideration of a number of designs, at a Council meeting in January of 1949 a design was approved. It featured a shield divided into two with the main part showing an open book super imposed on blue and white wavy lines. The upper part of the shield is red and carries on it a yellow lion. The lion is a symbol of the King, but since the lion cannot be identical with the Royal Lion it has been "differenced" by the addition of black marks on the lion's skin, technically known as "erminois".  These same markings also appear in the coat-of-arms of Princess Alice, the UCWI's first Chancellor.

The crest is a brown Pelican.  The arms are shown surrounded by what is technically know as "mantling", which includes the symbol of a helmet with the vizor closed indicating that the arms have been granted to a corporation rather than an individual.

Records relating to the design of the University's Armorial bearing are available for viewing at the University Archives, Mona under Archives Accession No.  MA92.1.