I enjoy family history, local history and occasional blogging relating to my interests, and can become interested in just about anything my mind or the internet takes me to. I enjoy collecting and flying flags, amongst other things, I have about 150 now. The hobby is called vexicology, but it is such a mouthful, and my knowledge is modest, so I do not refer to myself as a vexicologist ! My blog "What is that flag?" aims to guide the local residents and office workers who often stop me to ask what flag I am flying by my house in Vernon Street, Derby, each day.
Please do not assume this blog or any of my blogging is in any way authoritative. I am using text and information from sites I trust and normally find sufficiently accurate, and I use my common sense. In flag blogging there are certainly often inaccuracies as to the precise shades of colour in some of the images, and in the proportions of the flags. In my blogging for 'Sepia Saturday' there may be flippant, intended to be humorous, inaccuracies sometimes.
Today I am flying the National Flag of Canada in Vernon Street.
July 1 is Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada), formerly Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), frequently referred to as "Canada's birthday," the occasion marks the joining of the British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. However, though Canada is regarded as having become a dominion in its own right on that date, the British Parliament at first kept limited rights of political control over the new country, which were shed by stages over the years until the last vestiges were ended in 1982, when the Constitution Act patriated the Canadian constitution. Canada Day thus differs from Independence Day celebrations in other countries in that it does not commemorate a clear-cut date of complete independence.
The recent flag history
In 1964, the Prime Minister of Canada informed its House of Commons that the government wished to adopt a new distinctive national flag, previous flags having been based upoin varying versions of the British Red Ensign. The 1967 centennial celebration of Confederation was, after all, approaching. As a result, a Senate and House of Commons Committee was formed and submissions were called for. Eventually this committee was left with three possible designs -- a Red Ensign with the fleur-de-lis and the Union Jack, a design incorporating three red maple leaves, and a red flag with a single, stylized red maple leaf on a white square.
One of the rejected designs of the 1964 proposals known as the Pearson Pennant
The committee eventually decided to recommend the single-leaf design, which was approved by resolution of the House of Commons on December 15, 1964, followed by the Senate on December 17, 1964, and proclaimed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, to take effect on February 15, 1965.
I have previously written about the more distant history of the Canadian flag on June 13, see:
On June 29 1534 Jacques Cartier made the European discovery of Prince Edward Island. I am flying the Prince Edward Island flag today in Vernon Street.
The upper third of the flag features the English heraldic lion which appeared both on the coat of arms of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, for whom the province is named, and on that of King Edward VII. The lower two-thirds show an island on which appear three small oak saplings representing the three counties of PEI (Prince, Queens, and Kings) – under the protection of a great oak tree which represents Great Britain. This symbolism is also reflected in the provincial motto, Parva sub ingenti (the small under the protection of the great).
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent was the fourth son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria. He served as Colonel of the 7th Royal Fusiliers. The Fusiliers were ordered to Canada in May 1791. In 1799 he was promoted to the rank of general and appointed the commander-in-chief of the forces in British North America. For most of this period he lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was instrumental in shaping that port's military defences for protecting the important Royal Navy base.
Prince Edward Island is located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence . The island has two urban areas. The largest surrounds Charlottetown Harbour, situated centrally on the island's southern shore, and consists of the capital city Charlottetown, and suburban towns Cornwall and Stratford and a developing urban fringe. A much smaller urban area surrounds Summerside Harbour, situated on the southern shore 40 km (25 mi) west of Charlottetown Harbour, and consists primarily of the city of Summerside.
Jacques Cartier (December 31, 1491–September 1, 1557) was a French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec City) and at Hochelaga (Montreal Island)
Jacques Cartier discovered the island in 1534. As part of the French colony of Acadia, the island was called "Île Saint-Jean". Roughly one thousand Acadians lived on the island. However, many fled to the island from mainland Nova Scotia during the British-ordered expulsion in 1755. Many more were forcibly deported in 1758 when British soldiers were ordered to capture the island.
Great Britain obtained the island from France under the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 which settled the Seven Years' War, calling the colony St. John's Island (also the Island of St. John's).
In September 1864, Prince Edward Island hosted the Charlottetown Conference, which was the first meeting in the process leading to the Articles of Confederation and the creation of Canada in 1867. Prince Edward Island did not find the terms of union favourable and balked at joining in 1867, choosing to remain a colony of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Charlottetown Conference
Prince Edward Island later entered Confederation on 1 July 1873. As a result of having hosted the inaugural meeting of Confederation, the Charlottetown Conference, Prince Edward Island presents itself as the "Birthplace of Confederation"
An unofficial Canadian Red Ensign from 1873 after Prince Edward Island joined Canada as the seventh province.
Quebec: The National Holiday of Quebec is the National Holiday of the Canadian province of Quebec. A paid statutory public holiday covered by the Act Respecting Labour Standards, it is celebrated annually on June 24, St. John the Baptist Day.
La Fête nationale du Québec a lieu le 24 juin. Au Québec, ce jour est férié et chômé en vertu de la Loi sur la fête nationale. La fête nationale est souvent appelée la Saint-Jean-Baptiste ou la Saint-Jean pour des raisons historiques.
The Quebec flag, the Fleurdelisé, takes its white cross from the ancient royal flags of France and its white fleurs-de-lis and blue field from a banner honouring the Virgin Mary reputedly carried by French-Canadian militia at General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm's victory at Carillon (now Ticonderoga, New York). Contrary to popular belief, the fleurs-de-lis are not taken from the banner of the kings of France, who used golden fleurs-de-lis. The white fleurs-de-lis on Quebec's flag are symbols of purity, which originally represented the Virgin Mary.
La croix est un symbole chrétien. De couleur blanche, elle renvoie au catholicisme. Centrée et droite, elle est typique des anciens royaumes d’Europe occidentale. L'utilisation de croix blanches sur les drapeaux français remonte au XIIIe-XIVe siècle.
Comme pour le « Carillon », ancêtre direct du Fleurdelisé, le bleu symbolisait à l'origine la Vierge Marie. S’éloignant peu à peu de sa symbolique originelle, la couleur du drapeau est devenue nettement plus foncée au fil des années. Il est intéressant de noter que des drapeaux bleus à croix blanche sont attestés en France comme symboles militaires ou de la marine marchande dès le XVIe siècle.
Quebec is the only Canadian province and North American jurisdiction with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level.
Le Québec a un territoire d’une superficie de 1 667 441 km2 (soit 3 fois plus grand que la France) et une population de 7 744 530 habitants composée de divers groupes linguistiques et socio-culturels, dont onze nations autochtones. Sa langue officielle est le français, langue maternelle et d'usage de 80 % de la population.
Quebec was one of the first four provinces to form Canada under the Constitution Act, 1867, which brought about a Confederation of one Dominion under the name of Canada consisting of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The coat of arms of Quebec formed part of the first Canadian Red Ensign, the then unofficial flag of Canada. It changed a number of times as more provinces and territories joined and by 1905 the shield on the Red Ensign had nine coats of arms of the current nine provinces represented on it.
In the UK, today, June 13, it is the official birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (she was actually born 21 April 1926). I flew the Union Jack some days ago, so I was looking today for something with an indirect connection with Her Majesty.
June 13 is also the anniversary of the great fire of Vancouver, British Columbia, and so I have chosen my British Columbia flag to fly today.
In Canada the Queen's official birthday is actually celebrated by Victoria Day in May. After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, an Act was passed by the Parliament of Canada (as subsequently amended in 1952) establishing the legal holiday on the Monday preceding May 25.
The Flag of British Columbia, the sixth province to formally join Canada in 1871, is based upon the shield of the provincial arms of British Columbia. At the top of the flag is a rendition of the Union Flag, defaced in the centre by a crown, representing the province's origins as a British colony, with a setting sun below.
The Queen
Queen Elizabeth is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. All together, these countries have a combined population, including dependencies, of over 129 million. She holds each crown separately and equally in a shared monarchy, and carries out duties in and on behalf of all the states of which she is sovereign. She is also Head of the Commonwealth, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Duke of Normandy, Lord of Mann, and Paramount Chief of Fiji. In theory her powers are vast; however, in practice, and in accordance with convention, she rarely intervenes in political matters.
The official birthday, traditionally held on a Saturday in early June in the UK, is marked by the Trooping of the colour in London, Horse Guards Parade.
The Massed Bands on Horseguards for Trooping the Colour 2006.
Vancouver
The Great Vancouver Fire was a conflagration that destroyed most of the newly-incorporated city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 13 June 1886. The fire began as a brush fire to clear land that was spread out of control by a strong gale. Dozens of lives were claimed by the fire and the only structures not destroyed were a stone building in the West End, the Hastings Mill Store, and a few structures on the banks of False Creek. An estimated $1.3 million was lost in destroyed property, but within four days, new buildings began to appear. The city was rebuilt with modern water, electricity and streetcar systems.
The flag of Vancouver
The Canadian Flag
The current flag of Canada is the Maple Leaf, and l'Unifolié (French for "the one-leafed"), a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag.
The Maple Leaf, the official Canadian lag since 1965
The Canadian Red Ensign
The Canadian Red Ensign had been unofficially used since the 1860s and was approved by a 1945 Order-in-Council for use "wherever place or occasion may make it desirable to fly a distinctive Canadian flag".
By strange coincidence, whilst I was drafting this blog a few days in advance, a fellow blogger, Brett Payne of of Tauranga, New Zealand , author of the Photo-Sleuth blog and Photographers & Photographic Studios in Derbyshire, England, sent a photograph of his ancestors partying in the woods, with a request that I identify the flags on the right.
I immediately spotted the British Columbia “setting sun” and, as he told me they had at one time been in Winnipeg, and already being familiar with the Canadian Red Ensigns, I set about both trying to identify the provincial shields on the crest, and match this with a known version of the unofficial flags that had been used for so long.
The task has proved more difficult that at first it appeared. There are many versions of the Red Ensign as Canada came together from the various additions to the original Canada of the Constitution Act, 1867, which brought about a Confederation of one Dominion under the name of Canada consisting of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. As further territorial bodies joined, so their shields were added to the unofficial Red Ensigns. It seems probable to me that there could be a limitless versions of an unofficial flag as graphic designers at local flag producers may have interpreted change as they felt right, which might well have given prominence to their own province. I may well be shot down with that suggestion.
Another point is that the available images of flags generally seen on the Internet are images produced recently in digital graphic form, as opposed to images of original "approved" designs, actual flags or other accurate published material. So all flag images seen on the Internet have to be taken as simply "representative" of design, colour and ratio., and looked at with a pinch of salt.
Below are some of the Canadian Red Ensigns. I have intentionally put dates with question marks as I suspect that there are differences of opinion as to exact dates. In some flags there are versions both without and with the adornments of the crown and maple leaf garland that were found on the great seal.
(Four provinces, 1867-1871?)
(5 Provinces, 1873+?)
(7 Provinces, 1873+?)
(7 Provinces, 1896+? ; BC varies to prior 7 province version after it adopted a new coat of arms)
(7 Provinces, 1901?; The Victoria crown is replaced by the Edward crown following her death)
(9 Provinces, 1905+ ?)
(9 Provinces, 1905+ ?)
(1921-1957)
(1957-1965) The Maple leaves were changed to red. The 1921 proclamation specified that the leaves be "proper," i.e., in their natural colour, but this was ambiguous because maple leaves can be green, yellow, or red. Artists had previously drawn them green, but on this date the secretary of state announced that they should henceforth be red.
This last flag above I spotted on Ebay today, some further artistic licence perhaps? Possibly circa 1871 to 1873 as it has BC (1871) but not Prince Edward Island (1873). I don't think the seller has appreciated its age, it will be interesting to see if the collectors miss it ! I doubt it !
This flag appears to me to make more chronological sense, as it has BC, which became a province in 1871, and not Prince Edward Island (1873). The earlier 5 Province flag image shown above shows Prince Edward Island but not BC. I wonder if that earlier image is an error by whoever compiled it and posted it on the Internet??
I appear to have set myself the task of working out which Ensign appears in the Brett Payne's old photograph , and I am afraid the results are unlikely to be ready for this blog. One of the authorities on the history of the Red Ensigns is Alistair B Fraser, a British Columbia resident and Emeritus Professor of Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University, and author of The Flags of Canada. I am hoping that Mr Fraser keeps an eye on his good name with Google Alerts or similar, and will spot this blog and leave his valued opinion before, if ever, I solve it myself.
On the 65th Anniversaryof the "D-Day", June 6, 1944, I have spent the afternoon and evening watching the coverage of the commemoration pilgrimages to the beaches of Normandy, and some extraordinary film footage on BBC Four this evening.
For today, June 7, as tribute, I will fly my Normandy flag, of two leopards passant, and attach also to this blog the flags of the main landing forces.
I have spent this year reading up about this extraordinary event, in anticipation of a week to be spent in Normandy with my family later in the year.
It is quite beyond me to comment here upon the courage, cunning, planning and deceit of this landing.
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