When statically displayed, the hoist is on the observer's left. It was then estimated that the alteration would cost at least £2,000,000. The original flag appears in the canton of the Commissioners' Ensign of the Northern Lighthouse Board. After the British referendum on membership of the European Union resulted in a vote to leave, the Union Flag had become a symbol of euroscepticism in Italy. The Union Jack (連合の意義 (ユニオンジャック) Rengō no Igi (Yunion Jakku), lit. Union Nationality and Flags Act 1927 (renamed 'Flags Act 1927' in 1949). "The following is a list of stations at which the national flag (Union Jack) is authorised to be hoisted on anniversaries only, or when specially required for saluting purposes." It is usually folded rectilinearly, with the hoist on the outside, to be easily reattached to the pole. One theory goes that for some years it would have been called just the "Jack", or "Jack flag", or the "King's Jack", but by 1674, while formally referred to as "His Majesty's Jack", it was commonly called the "Union Jack", and this was officially acknowledged. It can be traced back to 1823 when it was created as a signal flag, but not intended as a civil jack. The Basque Country's flag, the Ikurriña, is also loosely based on the Union Jack, reflecting the significant commercial ties between Bilbao and Britain at the time the Ikurriña was designed in 1894. However, on 23 April, St George's Day, it is the Union Flag of the United Kingdom that is flown over UK government offices in England. The Queen's Harbour Master's flag, like the Pilot Jack, is a 1:2 flag that contains a white-bordered Union Flag that is longer than 1:2. Union Flag 1606-1801 In the decree of issuance of the new flag, James stipulated that all ships of both English and Scottish registry were to fly this flag from atop their mainmasts. [83] Although the Australian blue ensign replaced the Union Jack as the flag of Australia, Australian prime minister Robert Menzies reassured Australians that the Union Flag would be flown together with the Australian national flag "on notable occasions". In the 2016 Reed's Nautical Almanac, the only entry where this might appear, section 5.21, covering Flag Etiquette, does not include this statement. Few flags are as recognizable as the Union Jack, the national flag of the United Kingdom. In South Africa, the Union Jacks flown alongside the National Flag between 1928 and 1957 were 2:3 flags. By John Misachi on April 25 2017 in Society. A compromise was reached in which both flags were flown on official buildings. It is called the Union Flag because the United Kingdom is a union England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Union Flag or Union Jack Flag is the official flag of the UK which includes Northern Ireland. The term Union Jack possibly dates from Queen Anne's time (r. 1702–14), but its origin is uncertain. And except for a symbolic 14-month period during the 1976 U.S. A Reading Comprehension to be used after a CLIL lesson on Geography. What happened on this day in history. (The Office of the Lord Lyon does not detail specific shades of colour for use in heraldry.). [90][91] However, the Union Flag continued to see tandem use with the national flag of New Zealand into the 1950s.[90]. A Reading Comprehension to be used after a CLIL lesson on Geography. argent or silver). The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In 2008, MP Andrew Rosindell proposed a Ten Minute Rule bill to standardise the design of the flag at 3:5, but the bill did not proceed past the first reading. In Northern Ireland, the Flags Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 provide for the flying of the flag on government buildings on certain occasions, when it is flown half-mast, and how it is displayed with other flags. The continued use of the Union Jack as national flag became an issue in the 1920s, when the government proposed to introduce a National Flag of the Union. John Cabot could have unfurled the Cross of St. George — consisting of a red cross on a white field — in 1497 when he claimed North America for the English Crown. Within the Almanac, neither the Union Flag nor the Union Jack are included pictorially or mentioned by name. The Union Jack was to be flown alongside the National Flag at the Houses of Parliament, from the principal government buildings in the capitals, at Union ports, on government offices abroad, and at such other places as the government might determine. Union Jack. According to the Flag Institute, a membership-run vexillological charity,[12] "the national flag of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories is the Union Flag, which may also be called the Union Jack. Taunton, Massachusetts, used a flag with the old style Union Flag by a resolution on October 19, 1974. There’s a Right Way to Display It. The Union Jack is composed of the flags of three patron saints layered one over the other. At the suggestion of the Scots representatives, the designs for consideration included that version of Union Jack showing the Cross of Saint Andrew uppermost; identified as being the "Scotts union flagg as said to be used by the Scotts". [38] The Queen's Colours of Army regiments are 36 by 43 inches (910 mm × 1,090 mm); on them, the bars of the cross and saltire are of equal width; so are their respective fimbriations, which are very narrow.[39]. Thus, at the time of the flag's design the cross of St George represented all of England and Wales. It will certainly become a flag under which great victories were won in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but to most minds the sentimental loss will be great. The claim that the term Union Jack properly refers only to naval usage has been disputed, following historical investigations by the Flag Institute in 2013. Why is it called Union Jack? The parliamentary resolution passed on 18 December 1964 assigned two purposes for the Union Flag in Canada, as a flag representing the United Kingdom, and as an official ceremonial flag of Canada. [79], There is no specific way in which the Union Flag should be folded as there is with the United States Flag. So - “…the jack flag had existed for over a hundred and fifty years before the jack staff…”. Apart from the Union Jack, Saint Patrick's cross has seldom been used to represent Ireland, and with little popular recognition or enthusiasm; it is usually considered to derive from the arms of the powerful FitzGerald family rather than any association with the saint.[56]. The Union Flag has no official status in the United Kingdom, and there are no national regulations concerning its use or prohibitions against flag desecration. The Union Jack Club was founded by Miss Ethel McCaul, a nurse who served in the South African War at the turn of the 20thCentury. In this way, the kingdoms of Scotland and England were united in the person of James (though they were officially united in 1707).. Nations and colonies that have used the Union Flag at some stage have included Aden, Basutoland (now Lesotho), Barbados, Bechuanaland (now Botswana), Borneo, Burma, Canada, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Cyprus, Dominica, British East Africa (Kenya Colony), Gambia, Gold Coast (Ghana), Grenada, Guiana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Labuan (Malaysia), Lagos, Malta, Mauritius, Nigeria, Palestine, Penang (Malaysia), Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somaliland, South Africa, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Pre-partitioned India (present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar), Tanganyika, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, the United States, and Weihaiwei. When the Union of South Africa was established in 1910, the Union Jack was treated as its official flag. The Union Flag became the flag of New Zealand after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in February 1840, replacing the flag used by the United Tribes of New Zealand. It is called the Union Flag because it symbolises the administrative union of the countries of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack has been in existence since 1606, when England and Scotland merged, but changed to its current form in 1801 when Ireland joined the United Kingdom. Act 1993 and the consolidating Merchant Shipping Act 1995 which, in Section 4, Subsection 1, prohibits the use of any distinctive national colours or those used or resembling flags or pendants on Her Majesty's Ships, "except the Red Ensign, the Union flag (commonly known as the Union Jack) with a white border", and some other exceptions permitted elsewhere in the Acts. Notably, the home nation of Wales is not represented separately in the Union Flag, as the concept of a standardised national flag was not fully developed at the time of the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 integrating Wales into the Kingdom of England. However, the fact that it was likely that Northern Ireland would choose not to remain part of the Irish Free State after its foundation and remain in the United Kingdom, gave better grounds for keeping the cross of St. Patrick in the Union Jack. However, as Scotland voted against independence the issue did not arise.[65][66]. Pre-1801 Union flag at the historic Fort York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, The Scottish Union flag at Lennoxlove House, East Lothian, Scotland, The Ulster Covenant, signed in 1912 by Sir Edward Carson on a Union flag table. There’s a Right Way to Display It. The Admiralty in 1864 settled all official flags at proportions of 1:2, but the relative widths of the crosses remained unspecified, with the above conventions becoming standardised in the 20th century. [51], On land, evidence confirming the use of this flag appears in the depiction of Edinburgh Castle by John Slezer, in his series of engravings entitled Theatrum Scotiae, c. 1693. The cross of England’s patron saint had developed as a national symbol of England from 1277 onward and was borne on armour, clothing and small flags. In August 2016, many local businesses along the Italian riviera hoisted the flags as a protest against the implementation of the Services in the Internal Market Directive 2006. While officers had their clubs, servicemen below commissioned rank had nowhere reputable to stay with their families in the nation’s capital. [47] Although documents accompanying this complaint which contained drafts for alternative designs have been lost, evidence exists, at least on paper, of an unofficial Scottish variant, whereby the Scottish cross was uppermost. Radburn, A. It was then adopted by land forces as well, although the blue field used on land-based versions more closely resembled that of the blue of the flag of Scotland. All of the coloured ensigns contain the union flag as part of the design. [48][49][50] This flag's design is also described in the 1704 edition of The Present State of the Universe by John Beaumont, which contains as an appendix The Ensigns, Colours or Flags of the Ships at Sea: Belonging to The several Princes and States in the World. It is the British flag. [107], The Union Jack remains one of the most instantly-recognised flags in the world. The United Kingdom, or Britain, is found in Western Europe. [64], In the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, various non-official suggestions were made for how the flag could be redesigned without the St Andrew's Cross in the event that Scotland left the Union. The Royal Navy's flag code book, BR20 Flags of All Nations, states that both 1:2 and 3:5 versions are official. In 1606, King James VI ordered for the creation of a flag which bore the crosses of both St George and St Andrew. Likewise, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, has been known to fly a flag containing the King's Colours since 1973.[105]. [54], On 17 April 1707, just two weeks prior to the Acts of Union coming into effect, and with Sir Henry St George, the younger, the Garter King of Arms, having presented several designs of flag to Queen Anne and her Privy Council for consideration, the flag for the soon to be unified Kingdom of Great Britain was chosen. She f… When James VI took over the reign in the Kingdoms of English and Ireland in 1603 and united the crowns, he asked for the establishment of a new flag as the representation for the regal union. [20] Reinforcing the distinction the King's proclamation of the same day concerning the arms and flag of the United Kingdom (not colours at sea) called the new flag "the Union Flag". [100][102][103], Some specifically flew the Union Flag and the colonial flag of Hong Kong, nostalgic of the "values" of the previous colonial government, namely "personal freedoms, rule of law, [and] clean governance". In this version, the innermost points of the lower left and upper right diagonals of the St Patrick's cross are cut off or truncated. And except for a symbolic 14-month period during the 1976 U.S. [100] Several Hongkongers that hold British National (Overseas) passports who used the flag during the protests were doing so as a call to the British government to grant British National (Overseas) the right to abode in the United Kingdom. The Union Flag, and flags defaced with the Union Flag in its canton, like the Canadian Red Ensign, continue to see use in Canada in a private capacity. The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the national flag of the United Kingdom.The flag also has official status in Canada, by parliamentary resolution, where it is known as the Royal Union Flag. On 15 February 1965, the maple leaf flag formally replaced the Union Flag as the flag of Canada following an official proclamation by Elizabeth II;[86] with the Royal Union Flag made an official ceremonial flag.[87]. The present design of the Union Flag dates from a Royal proclamation following the union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. (Dark shades of colour were used on maritime flags on the basis of durability.) If you look closely at the flag, you’ll notice that it’s actually not … The Union Jack is a fine expression of unity as well as diversity. When the Anglo-Irish Treaty was concluded on 6 December 1921 and the creation of the new Irish Free State was an imminent prospect, the question arose as to whether the cross of Saint Patrick should remain in the Union Jack. The full meaning of the term "Union Jack" may therefore truly be construed as the Union of Jacob. Union Jack and Union Flag are used interchangeably to refer to the flag of the UK. The term "Union Flag" is used in King Charles I's 1634 proclamation: ... none of Our Subjects, of any of Our Nations and Kingdoms shall from henceforth presume to carry the Union Flag in the Main top, or other part of any of their Ships (that is) St Georges cross and St Andrew's Cross joined together upon pain of Our high displeasure, but that the same Union Flag be still reserved as an ornament proper for Our own Ships and Ships in our immediate Service and Pay, and none other."[17]. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions © 2020 worldatlas.com, The Story Of The Union Jack: The National Flag Of The United Kingdom. For comparison with another anglophone country with a large navy: the Jack of the United States specifically refers to the flag flown from the jackstaff of a warship, auxiliary or other U.S. governmental entity. Thus, there is a correct side up. David Prothero, 13 June 2005. image by Željko Heimer, 28 September 2019. James became King of Scots at one year old when his mother Mary Queen of Scots was deposed by rebel Scottish Lords. [4] Additionally, it is used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas territories. All administrative regions and territories of the United Kingdom fly the Union Jack in some form, with the exception of Gibraltar (other than the government ensign). In 1606 the first Union Flag appeared. The term "Union Jack" refers to the flag being a union between three national flags. Note that an upside-down flag must be turned over to be flown correctly, rotating it 180 degrees will still result in an upside-down flag. The Union Jack has been the paramount ensign of Britain and her company of nations ever since the period of their phenomenal worldwide expansion. Union Jack History continued. [67] The Union Flag may also be flown from the yardarm to indicate that a court-martial is in progress, though these are now normally held at shore establishments. The flag of the Municipal Council of Shanghai International Settlement in 1869 contained multiple flags to symbolize the countries have participated in the creation and management of this enclave in the Chinese city of Shanghai. In the case of the Union Flag, the difference is subtle and is easily missed by the uninformed. On 12 April 1606, a new flag to represent this regal union between England and Scotland was specified in a royal decree, according to which the flag of England (a red cross on a white background, known as St George's Cross), and the flag of Scotland (a white saltire on a blue background, known as the saltire or … In 1606, James VI gave orders for a British flag to be created which bore the combined crosses of St George and of St Andrew. The history of the Union Jack started out with England alone and was eventually borne out by its conquests of Scotland in 1707 and merging with Ireland in 1801. [21], The size and power of the Royal Navy internationally at the time could also explain why the flag was named the "Union Jack"; considering the navy was so widely utilised and renowned by the United Kingdom and colonies, it is possible that the term jack occurred because of its regular use on all British ships using the jackstaff (a flag pole attached to the bow of a ship). Union Jack. [22] On 12 April 1606, a new flag to represent this regal union between England and Scotland was specified in a royal decree, according to which the flag of England (a red cross on a white background, known as St George's Cross), and the flag of Scotland (a white saltire on a blue background, known as the saltire or St Andrew's Cross), would be joined together,[8] forming the flag of Great Britain and first union flag: By the King: Whereas, some differences hath arisen between Our subjects of South and North Britaine travelling by Seas, about the bearing of their Flagges: For the avoiding of all contentions hereafter. Its first recorded recognition as a national flag came in 1908, when it was stated in Parliament that "the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag". A book[clarification needed] issued to British consuls in 1855 states that the white bordered Union Flag is to be hoisted for a pilot. [63] He said the Union Jack currently only represented the other three UK nations, and Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism Margaret Hodge conceded that Lucas had raised a valid point for debate. Commonly the Union Flag is used on computer software and Internet pages as an icon representing a choice of the English language where a choice among multiple languages may be presented to the user, though the American flag is also commonly used for this purpose. 'South Africa's Dual Flag Arrangement, 1928-1957' in, Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism, Flags Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000, Services in the Internal Market Directive 2006, List of countries and territories with the Union Jack displayed on their flag, flag of the British Indian Ocean Territory, flag of the United States of the Ionian Islands, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The official website of The British Monarchy", "Statement by the Hon. She said, "the Government is keen to make the Union Flag a positive symbol of Britishness reflecting the diversity of our country today and encouraging people to take pride in our flag." Irish National Flag The Union Flag, created by James in 1606, continued in use as a purely symbolic banner until 1707. In 1938, Brian's father, Lord Montgomery Falsworth, was outraged at British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin's policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler's German regime. Section 3. Ultimately, when the British home secretary was asked on 7 December 1922 (the day after the Irish Free State was established) whether the Garter King of Arms was "to issue any Regulations with reference to the national flag consequent to the passing of the Irish Free State Constitution Act", the response was no and the flag has never been changed. The Union Flag was also the formal flag for the Dominion of Newfoundland, a separate dominion of the British Empire from 1907 to 1949. Vancouver replied that it represented his king's authority. To keep any one of the three flags from having precedence, the Union Jack is spread horizontally from the Orange Free State flag towards the hoist; closest to the hoist, it is in the superior position but since it is reversed it does not precede the other flags. The actual flag, preserved in the National Maritime Museum, is a cruder approximation of the proper specifications; this was common in 18th and early 19th century flags.[44][45]. "[106] The Flag Institute listed the white bordered Union Flag as "Civil Jack".[13]. Some years ago there was a demand from Irish quarters that the blue ground of the golden harp on the royal standard should be changed to green. To fly the flag correctly, the white of St Andrew is above the red of St Patrick in the upper hoist canton (the quarter at the top nearest to the flag-pole).