Last modified: 2003-04-26 by rob raeside
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The official flag of a colony was the Union Jack. The governor flew the Union Jack with the badge of the colony in a laurel wreath in the centre of the St George's cross. Vessels employed by the government of the colony flew a Blue Ensign bearing the badge in the centre of the fly. A few colonies, usually self-governing ones, had a Red Ensign for their merchant marine. That privilege was not extended to all colonies, most of which had to use the plain Red Ensign. A couple of dominions - Canada until 1964 and South Africa until 1926 - in effect used Red Ensigns as their national flags.
The colonial badges could be the whole arms (e.g. Hong Kong), shield of arms
(e.g. the Falkland Islands), crest (e.g. British North Borneo), an adaptation of the
arms (e.g. New South Wales), the colonial seal (e.g. Barbados), or none of the above
(e.g. the Leeward Islands, which had a very poorly-designed badge involving ships
and pineapples at wildly varying scales).
Roy Stilling, 6 February 1996
Foreign civilian ships visiting any British overseas territory should fly, as
a courtesy flag, the territory's own Red Ensign if the territory has one and the
ship happens to carry one. The undefaced British Red Ensign is always an acceptable
alternative. If the ship is a Foreign government vessel they should fly the territory's
Blue Ensign. Basically the British rule is that you may use either the appropriate
Red, Blue or White ensign (depending upon your own status) or the land flag, except
that you cannot use the Union Flag at all.
Graham Bartram, 1 April 1999
Regulations of 1865 required all colonial governments to adopt a defaced Blue
Ensign for their ships, but a defaced Red Ensign for colonial merchantmen required
a warrant from the Admiralty.
Roy Stilling, April 1997
The red ensigns which were authorized by an Admiralty warrant were those of overseas territories. Flagmaster lists the following:
Territory | Date of permission to use a defaced Red Ensign |
---|---|
North Borneo (modern Sabah) | 5 January 1882 |
East Africa (Kenya) | 6 March 1890 |
Canada | 2 February 1892 |
New Zealand | 7 February 1899 |
British South Africa Company | 11 November 1902 |
Australia | 4 June 1903 |
South Africa | 28 December 1910 |
Cyprus | 31 August 1922 |
Newfoundland | 25 October 1918 |
Tanganyika | 9 March 1923 |
Somaliland | 29 June 1924 |
Indian Native States | 10 October 1924 |
Western Samoa | 16 January 1925 |
Palestine | 14 October 1927 |
India had an unofficial red ensign with a sort of sun in the fly charged with a ring and a star. If you read this carefully you will see a strange thing: there was a red ensign for an inland territory (Rhodesia).
Source: Flagmaster number 82, 1996, 'Sorting out the colonies, new flags for old possessions'
Nick Artimovich, 6 February 1996
In their work on Canadian flags, Alistair Fraser and Ralph Spence state that authorisation for the creation of a distinguishing flag for the governor general was given (presumably by the Admiralty) in 1869:
We further submit that the Governors of Your Majesty's Dominions in Foreign Parts, and Governors of all ranks and denomination administering the Governments of British Colonies and dependencies be authorised to fly the Union Jack with the Arms of the Badge of the Colony emblasoned in the centre thereof.Fraser and Spence do not give a primary reference as a citation for this quotation, but Conrad Swan states that the final design was authorised by despatch #191 of Lord Kimberley, secretary of state for the colonies, to Sir John Young, Bt., governor general of Canada, 16 July 1870; see Public Record Office CO 43/157. The above quotation simply gave permission for the governors general of the colonies to fly a distinguishing flag, and a rough idea as to its design - the specific design for each colony still had to be submitted to the authorities for approval. This happened for Canada on 16 July 1870. In fact, the final design differed from that suggested in the quotation above, in that the Union Flag not only had the badge of the colony in it, but was also surrounded by a crown and a garland of maple leaves. This became the general pattern for other colonies, although the garland was either of oak leaves or some local flora rather than the distinctively Canadian maple leaves.
Although it is certainly correct to suggest that the changes to the flags
of the governors general that occurred in 1931 in Canada and South Africa,
and later in the other dominions, must be seen as part of the constitutional
transformation process of the empire, one should be careful not to directly
link the change to the statute of Westminster. In fact, according to Conrad
Swan, York herald of arms, the change had been planned for quite some time
before 1931. Swan also asserts that it was King George V who personally
proposed the new design as early as 1928. In support of this Swan cites Lord
Stamfordham, private secretary to the king, to Sir Henry Farnham Burke, garter
king of arms, 24 September 1928; Public Record Office: CA 15. Finally, the
new flag was formally adopted in Canada on 25 February 1931, nearly a year
before the statute of Westminster was passed on 11 December 1931.
Glen Robert-Grant Hodgins, 23 February 1999
Originally the flags of governors-general, lieutenant-governors, governors-in-chief, governors, commissioners and administrators were all Union Jacks defaced with a badge in the centre. The royal crest on a blue flag was adopted by the governors-general of South Africa and Canada in 1931, and Australia and New Zealand in 1936. All subsequent governors-general had flags of this pattern. At various times between 1952 and 1988 the lieutenant-governors of the Canadian provinces (except for Nova Scotia) and the governors of the Australian states (except for Queensland) replaced their defaced Union Jacks with new distinguishing flags.
The following is a reasonably comprehensive list of the flags of governors-general. Unless otherwise noted, the name is on a scroll in capital letters and the flag proportions are 1:2.
Country | Dates | Legend | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Antigua | 1981-? | ? | |
Australia | 1936-present | Commonwealth of Australia | Crown changed in 1953. |
Bahamas | 1973-present | Commonwealth of the Bahamas | |
Barbados | 1966-present | Barbados | Ratio of 3:4. |
Belize | 1981-? | ? | |
Canada | 1931-present | Canada | Crown changed in 1953; scroll removed and royal crest replaced by the Canadian crest in 1981. |
Fiji | 1970-? | Fiji | Legend on a whale's tooth; ratio of 11:15. |
Gambia | 1965-70 | ? | |
Ghana | 1957-60 | ? | |
Grenada | 1974-present | Grenada | |
Guyana | 1966-70 | ? | |
India | 1947-50 | India | No scroll; see note no. 1 below. |
Jamaica | 1962-present | Jamaica | |
Kenya | 1963-64 | ? | |
Malawi | 1964-66 | ? | |
Malta | 1964-74 | Malta | |
Mauritius | 1968-92 | Mauritius | |
New Zealand | 1936-present | Dominion of New Zealand | Crown changed in 1953; legend changed to 'New Zealand'. |
Pakistan | 1947-56 | Pakistan | No scroll; crown changed in 1953. |
Papua New Guinea | 1975-present | Papua | |
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland | 1953-63 | Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland | See note no. 2 below. |
Saint Kitts-Nevis | 1983-present | St Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla | Legend changed to 'Country above Self'. |
Saint Lucia | 1979-present | Saint Lucia | |
St Vincent and the Grenadines | 1979-present | St Vincent & The Grenadines | |
Sierra leone | 1961-71 | ? | |
Solomon Islands | 1978-present | Solomon Islands | The legend appears on the outline of a two-headed frigate bird. |
South Africa | 1931-61 | 'Union of South Africa' above and 'Unie Van Suid Afrika' below crest. | Crown changed in 1953. |
South East Asia | 1946-1963(?) | South East Asia | The present Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. |
Southern Rhodesia | 1951-65+ | ? | Large crown (changed in 1953) instead of royal crest; ratio of 7:9. |
Sri Lanka | 1948-72 | Ceylon | No scroll; crown changed in 1953. |
Trinidad and Tobago | 1962-76 | Trinidad & Tobago | |
Tuvalu | 1978-present | Tuvalu | |
Uganda | 1962-67 | ? | |
West Indies | ? | The West Indies | See note no. 3 below. |
David Prothero, 16, 18 and 28 January 2000
There is a note at the beginning of the 1916 and 1930 Admiralty flag books which reads:
The white circles are not to appear on the Red and Blue Ensigns except where they are necessary to display the design; e.g. where the badge itself has a border of the same colour as the ensign.Some individual badges had additional notes such as 'on Blue Ensign without the white ground' or 'on Blue Ensign as shewn without the white circle'. In 1918 the Admiralty and Colonial Office agreed that there should be no white disc unless necessary, but thought that there could be 'occasions for diversity of opinion where the border of a badge was not uniform' and many white discs were officially removed following a survey in 1919. The situation in 1924 is described in Public Record Office, ADM 116/1847B, and as far as I know the "correct" appearance of the colonial ensigns was as follows:
David Prothero, 25 February and 20 October 1999
There are/were a number of badges on coloured discs, although it is not always clear whether the disc is coloured or the background colour is part of the badge:
Coloured discs: | |||
Blue | Military authorities afloat | Union Jack | 1869- |
Blue | Natal | Union Jack | 1905-1910 |
Orange | Northern Ireland | Union Jack | c1924-1973 |
Green | Southern Nigeria | Union Jack and Blue Ensign | 1900-1914 |
Badges with a coloured background: | |||
Red | Northern Nigeria | Union Jack and Blue Ensign | 1900-1914 |
Blue | Victoria | Union Jack | 1900-1984 |
Yellow | British North Borneo | Union Jack (with no garland), Blue Ensign and Red Ensign | 1882-1948 |
Yellow | Liu Kung Tau | Union Jack | 1898-1902 |
Yellow | South Australia | Union Jack | UJ: 1903-1976; BE: 1904- |
Yellow | Western Australia | Union Jack | UJ: 1870-1988; BE: 1870- |
Gold | Burma | Union Jack and Blue Ensign | 1937-1948 |
Red | Nigeria | Union Jack and Blue Ensign | 1914-1960 |
Yellow over white over black diagonally | British Central Africa Protectorate (Nyasaland after 1907) | Union Jack and Blue Ensign | 1894-1914 |
David Prothero, 30 December 1999
The Ministry of Defence is trying to address the problem of the
small badges on some ensigns. The latest official drawings bring the
older ensigns of British overseas territories into line with the modern
practice as seen in the flags of Guernsey,
Isle of Man, British
Antarctic Territory and Pitcairn Islands,
where the badges are a lot larger. In some cases, they are nearly
300% larger. This means that there is no longer either the need or
the room for the white discs. Where the shield and background colour
are similar, a white fimbriation is used instead. These will hopefully
make it a lot easier to identify the various territories.
Graham Bartram, 25 May 1999
So the MoD decided to make the badges much larger - the size and placement of badges on British ensigns was a decision in the power of the Admiralty, and passed to the MoD when the Admiralty ceased to exists as a separate body. So the MoD was simply exercising its authority in the matter, for the better identification of flags.
This meant that the white discs had to get larger. In fact the discs had to be so large that they looked ridiculous and it was therefore decided to discard them as they were no longer necessary, the new badges being clear even without the discs. So the new illustration of the Falkland Islands, Cayman Islands and Montserrat in BR20 (the government flag book) all had much larger badges (but no change to the design of the badge) and no white discs.
Of course the MoD's authority on flags only covers flags at sea, so the Islands concerned are free to continue using flags with discs on land if they wish to, but flags for use at sea should no longer have discs (unless they are old flags still in use). The question of discs of red ensigns is more complex as the size and placement of badges is usually specified in the Statutory Instrument that creates them and it is not clear whether the long standing MoD/Admiralty power over the size and placement of badges can be used to alter a flag created by a Statutory Instrument.
Now some people (mainly vexillologists) are unhappy that the MoD made this unilateral decision without consulting them, thereby discarding over a hundred years of arguments of disc or no disc! Some flag manufacturers are unhappy because some of their customers will want the new designs and some will still want the white discs.
Graham Bartram, 6 July 2000