Blue Ensign
The Blue Ensign is a flag, one of several British ensigns, used by certain organisations or territories associated with the United Kingdom. It is used either plain, or defaced with a badge or other emblem.
The evolution of the Blue Ensign followed that of the Union Flag. The ensign originated in the 17th century with the St George's cross (see Flag of England) in the canton, and with a blue field background (top right).
The Acts of Union 1707 united Scotland, England and Wales in the Kingdom of Great Britain and produced a new blue ensign which placed the Union Flag in the canton. With the Act of Union 1800, Ireland joined the United Kingdom and the St Patrick's Cross was added to the Union Flag of the United Kingdom and, accordingly, to the cantons of the British ensigns from 1 January 1801.
Plain blue ensign
Prior to the reorganisation of the Royal Navy in 1864, the plain blue ensign had been the ensign of one of three squadrons of the Royal Navy, the Blue Squadron. This changed in 1864, when an order in council provided that the Red Ensign was allocated to merchantmen, the Blue Ensign was to be the flag of ships in public service or commanded by an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve, and the White Ensign was allocated to the Navy.
Thus, after 1864, the plain blue ensign is permitted to be worn, instead of the Red Ensign, by two categories of civilian vessel:
- British merchant vessels whose officers and crew include a certain number of retired Royal Navy personnel or Royal Navy reservists, or are commanded by an officer of the Royal Naval Reserve in possession of a Government warrant. The number and rank of such crew members required has varied over the years, as have the additional conditions required, since the system was first introduced in 1864.
- Yachts belonging to members of certain long-established British yacht clubs, such as the Royal Engineers Yacht Club or Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht Club. Permission for yachts to wear the blue ensign (and other special yachting ensigns) was suspended during both World War I and World War II.
Defaced blue ensign
Since 1864, the Blue Ensign is defaced with a badge or emblem, to form the ensign of United Kingdom government departments or public bodies, for example:-
- Vessels belonging to members of certain British Yacht Clubs (for example, the Cruising Association, the Royal Harwich Yacht Club, and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club). Some yacht clubs in Canada (e.g., the Royal Canadian Yacht Club (Toronto), the Royal Kennebecasis Yacht Club, and the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club) were initially granted British Admiralty warrants to use various versions of the Blue Ensign, and in 1938, this authority was transferred to the Canadian Defence Ministry, which then issued special ensign warrants to Canadian yachts thereafter. At the same time, the Canadian Defence Ministry determined that all privileged Canadian clubs would use the Canadian Blue Ensign as opposed to the plain version or a club-defaced version. When the Canadian National Flag was introduced in 1965, the Blue Ensign in all its forms became obsolete in Canada, but several privileged Canadian yacht clubs have continued to display the Canadian Blue Ensign or their pre-1938 Blue Ensign unofficially.
- Government vessels of UK overseas territories. This usage stems from the fact that in 1867–69, orders in council provided that the ensign for vessels in the service of any of the British colonies was to be the Blue Ensign, charged in the fly with the seal of the colony. Any British colony with ships in its service thus had reason to use the Blue Ensign. This worldwide, imperial use is the origin of the use of the Blue Ensign by many areas today, such as the Australian states. Although the distinguishing flag of Bermuda is a defaced red ensign, its government marine services (police, ferries, etc.) fly a defaced blue ensign from both vessels and shore facilities.
The defaced blue ensign was formerly used as:
- In the first half of the 20th century, Blue Ensigns for each province of Canada often appeared in charts of "all the world's flags", but these flags were just fantasies of the artists who drew the charts, and then copied by other artists putting together similar charts. They never existed in real life.
Flags of UK Overseas Territories using the Blue Ensign
These include:
The colonial flag of Hong Kong and the ensign of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force were based on the Blue Ensign.
National flags based on the Blue Ensign
These include:
Other flags based on the Blue Ensign
See also
External links