Flying Thursday July 10, 2009.

California, and Death Valley

I am flying the state flag of California today. On this day, July 10, 1913, the temperature in Death Valley, California, USA was recorded at 134 °F (56.7 °C), the highest ever recorded in the United States.

The Lone Star on the flag: In 1836, Juan Alvarado and Isaac Graham led a revolution against Mexican rule. During this first revolt, rebels were able to capture Monterey and declared California "a free and sovereign state". Their rebellion failed to secure independence for California, but it inspired the design of flag of the Bear Flag Revolt, the Lone Star Flag of California contained a single red star on a white backround.

The original Grizzly Bear Flag was raised for the first time Sonoma, California in June 1846 by the men who became known as the "Bear Flaggers". A US Naval Lieutenant John Missroon reported the flag's existence as of June 17, 1846. California had been part of Mexico since Mexican independence in 1821 as the department of Alta California, and under the control of Spain for many years before that.

The "California Republic"proclaimed by settlers in, 1846, in Sonoma actually lasted less than a month, but is retained on the flag.

Death Valley

Death Valley is the lowest, dryest, and hottest location in North America. Badwater, a basin located within Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 ft (85.5 m ) below sea level. This point is a mere 76 miles (123 km) east of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.

Mount Whitney 14,505 feet (4,421 m) above sea level.

Death Valley holds the record for the highest reliably reported temperature in the Western hemisphere, 134°F (56.7°C) at Furnace Creek in 1913—just short of the world record, which was 136°F (58°C) in Al 'Aziziyah, Libya, on September 13, 1922.

Death Valley, 282 ft (85.5 m ) below sea level.

Located on the border between California and Nevada, southeast of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Great Basin and the Mojave Desert, Death Valley constitutes much of Death Valley National Park and is the principal feature of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve. It is located mostly in Inyo County, California. It runs from north to south between the Amargosa Range on the east and the Panamint Range on the west; the Sylvania Mountains and the Owlshead Mountains form its northern and southern boundaries, respectively. It has an area of about 3,000 sq mi (7,800 km2). Death Valley shares many characteristics with other places around the world that lie below sea level.

Drag the cursor in this photo below to see a panorama of Death Valley

Flying Thursday July 9, 2009.

New England. USA.

July 9 is one of those days I cannot find an anniversary to relate to a flag in my collection. A new reader to my blog is my cousin John Loring in Boston, Massachusetts, so what better than to fly my New England flag? It was actually a vist from John a few years ago that started my interest in flags. I bought a Massachusetts state flag to fly when he visited Derby, and my collection followed from there!

Flag of New England, 1686-c.1707?

New England is the north east corner of the United States, now comprising the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. This region was originally inhabited by several Amerindian tribes; later it was the site of some of the earliest European settlements in North America.

The flag is based on the red naval ensign of the Royal Navy, which featured the cross of St. George in the canton (the above flag without the pine tree). The ensign was used at both the Jamestown (now In Virginia) and Plymouth (Massachusetts) colonies.

Puritans in New England, led by Roger Williams, objected to the use of a Christian cross on their flag, and for a time flew a red flag with a plain white canton.

The cross-less New England version.

The cross-less flag first appeared in 1634 in Salem, but some considered it to be an act of rebellion against England. The cross-less flags became popular in New England, and militia companies designed unique patterns on their flags. In 1665, the Royal Commissioners recommended that all ships and militia companies be ordered to fly "the true colours of England, by which they may be knowne to be his majesties legitimate subjects." Nevertheless, some cross-less flags were still in use as late as 1680.

New Englanders continued to look for ways to represent their country, however. In 1684, the town of Newbury, Massachusetts, though retaining the Cross of St George, changed to a green flag.

The Newbury, Mass, version

A pine tree was added to some flags during the reign of King James II, possibly inspired by the pine-tree shilling which was minted in Massachusetts. In 1707, a proclamation was issued that all merchant vessels fly the red ensign with the British Union in the canton.

Red ensign with the British Union in the canton, and added pine.

The Pine Tree Shilling

As early as 1650, the colony of Massachusetts Bay was a commercial success. But an inadequate supply of money put its future development in jeopardy. England was not inclined to send gold and silver coins to the colonies, for they were in short supply in the mother country.

Taking matters into their own hands, Boston authorities allowed two settlers, John Hull and Robert Sanderson, to set up a mint in the capital in 1652. The two were soon striking silver coinage - shillings, sixpences, and threepences. Nearly all of the new coins bore the same date: 1652.

This was the origin of America's most famous colonial coin, the pine tree shilling. The name comes from the tree found on the obverse. It may symbolize one of the Bay Colony's prime exports, pine trees for ships' masts. Massachusetts coinage not only circulated within that colony, but was generally accepted throughout the Northeast, becoming a monetary standard in its own right.

A further "Pine Tree" origin explanation.

The history of the Pine Tree as a symbol of New England probably predates the european colonial settlements. In eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire and the southern corner of Maine, there once lived a nomadic tribe known as the Penacook. "Penacook" is an Algonquin word meaning "Children of the Pine Tree." The Penacook people have been credited with teaching the Pilgrims, those settlers of the Plymouth Colony of Eastern Massachusetts, much needed survival skills when the colonists were starving to death during the winter of 1621-22. The forests surrounding the settlement were teeming with game and wild foods unfamiliar to the Pilgrims and it was the Penacooks who showed them these new things.

Bunker Hill

See also my blog of the flag of the battle of Bunker Hill. on June 17th.

Flying Wednesday July 8, 2009.

I am flying the Portugese flag today. On 8 July 1497 Dom Vasco da Gama set sail as commander of a fleet of four ships, the first to sail directly from Europe to India.

Dom Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueiraca. (born either 1460 or 1469, died 1524 in Kochi, India) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the European Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India.

Vasco da Gama

On 8 July 1497 a fleet under his command, consisting of four ships and a crew of 170 men, left Lisbon. The vessels were:

The São Gabriel, commanded by Vasco da Gama; The São Rafael, whose commander was his brother Paulo da Gama; The caravel Berrio, and a storage ship of unknown name later lost near the Bay of São Brás, along the east coast of Africa.

The fleet arrived in Calicut on 20 May 1498. Negotiations with the local ruler, the Zamorin of Calicut, occasionally took on a violent nature. Efforts by Gama and the Portuguese to obtain favorable trade terms were complicated by resistance from indigenous Arab merchants. Eventually Gama was able to gain an ambiguous letter of concession for trading rights, but he had to depart without giving notice of his intention to do so after the Zamorin insisted that Gama leave all his goods as collateral. Vasco da Gama kept his goods, but left a few Portuguese with orders to start a trading post.

Vasco da Gama lands at Calicut, May 20, 1498.

Pictures of the "Sao Gabriel" (bottom right), "Sao Rafael", and "Berrio" are by Visconde de Juromenha done around 1558 after a painting made on order by D. Jorge Cabral, Governor of India, 1549-50.

Examples of modern caravels, square riggeds and lanteen rigged.

Map of the Portuguese Empire during the reign of John III (1502–1557).

Flying Tuesday July 7; 2009.

The state flag of Missouri is flying in Vernon street today, July 7. What extraordinary event could possibly be celebrated? Maybe the greatest thing since sliced bread?

The Flag of the State of Missouri was designed and stitched in Jackson, Missouri, by Marie, the wife of former State Senator R.B. Oliver. Her design was adopted in 1913.

Sliced Bread !

Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa invented the first loaf-at-a-time bread-slicing machine.

A prototype he built in 1912 was destroyed in a fire, and it was not until 1928 that Rohwedder had a fully working machine ready. The first commercial use of the machine was by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri, which produced their first slices on July 7, 1928. Their product, "Kleen Maid Sliced Bread", proved a success.

During 1943, U. S. officials imposed a short-lived ban on sliced bread as a wartime conservation measure.

On January 26, 1943, a letter appeared in the New York Times from a distraught housewife:

...............“I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household. My husband and four children are all in a rush during and after breakfast. Without ready-sliced bread I must do the slicing for toast—two pieces for each one—that's ten. For their lunches I must cut by hand at least twenty slices, for two sandwiches apiece. Afterward I make my own toast. Twenty-two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry!”

Don’t you just feel so sorry for US housewives?

Nice!!............. But then I suppose it is preferable to slicing it oneself ?

Flying Sunday and Monday, July 5-6, 2009.

Today and tomorrow I am flying the Maori Flag of Tino Rangatiratanga.

Some months ago my sister-in-law, in Wellington NZ, very kindly sent me a gift of a flag of Tino Rangatiratanga for my collection. I have flown it a couple of times, but not being tuned in to Maori culture and events and anniversaries etc, I was reprimanded by her for not having flown it recently on the annual Maori cultural festival of Matariki which commenced in June. Sorry Deborah ! I have now done my research.

This is the Maori Independence (Tino Rangatiratanga) movement’s flag. The symbolism of the flag is said to be as follows:

BLACK represents Te Korekore (the realm of potential being). It thus symbolises the long darkness from which the earth emerged, as well as signifying Rangi - the heavens, a male, formless, floating, passive force.

RED represents Te Whei Ao (coming into being). It symbolises Papatuanuku, the earth-mother, the sustainer of all living things, and thus both the land and active forces.

WHITE represents Te Ao Marama (the realm of being and light). It symbolises the physical world, purity, harmony, enlightenment and balance.

The spiral-like KORU, symbolic of a curling fern frond, represents the unfolding of new life, hope for the future and the process of renewal.

Matariki, Maori festival, May to July.

In the Māori language Matariki is the name of the Pleiades star cluster, which was important for agriculture in establishing the correct time to plant crops.

The first rising of the Pleiades and of Rigel (another star) occurs just prior to sunrise in late May or early June, and this indicates that the old year has ended and the new year has begun. The actual time for celebrating Matariki varies, depending on the iwi (tribe or clan). Some iwi celebrate it immediately. Others wait until the rising of the next full moon, or alternatively the dawn of the next new moon. It has become common practice for various private and public institutions to celebrate Matariki over the period of a week or month anywhere from early June to late July. Other iwi used the rising of Rigel in a similar way.

In traditional times, Matariki was a season to celebrate and to prepare the ground for the coming year. Offerings of the produce of the land were made to the gods, including Rongo, god of cultivated food. This time of the year was also a good time to instruct young people in the lore of the land and the forest. In addition, certain birds and fish were especially easy to harvest at this time. Matariki is now celebrated as a cultural festival of many local events over a number of weeks in June and July.

Some other Maori History

Yesterday I was chatting on line with Brett Payne in Tauranga, NZ. He has an excellent blog Photo-Sleuth which I follow, and also a web site Derbyshire Photographers. Brett had actually been to The Auckland War Memorial Museum (or simply the Auckland Museum) one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. He had photographed a flag there, and he sent me an image as a challenge for me to solve:

My first thoughts were that, with the juxtaposition of the new moon, star and cross, (southern cross I wondered?), I would give my first guess as a Matariki festival flag. I was wrong. A little more searching, and I found this image below, which appeared to be a closely related flag:

(Aotearoa, a Maori name for the lands that comprise New Zealand.)

This image was of a Maori woman, Heni Te Kirikaramu also known as Heni Pore or Jane Foley, and discovering her led me to a story of warfare, the story of the battle of Gate Pā.

Gate Pā

Gate Pā was the name of a Māori Pā or fortress built in 1864 (3 miles from the main British base of Camp Te Papa at Tauranga, during the Tauranga Campaign of the New Zealand Land Wars. The name pā comes from its appearance, the palisade looked like a picket fence while a higher part in the middle resembled a gate.

The pā was built at the instigation of Chief Rawiri Puhirake of Ngai Te Rangi, on the edge of land owned by Māori, where missionaries had erected a gate between the Māori and colonial settlers. Puhirake believed British reprisal for his support of the King Movement during the Waikato War was inevitable, so he constructed Gate Pa for protection. This failed to rouse the British so he began sending taunts, declaring he had built a road from the British camp to the pā, "so that the British would not be too tired to fight".

General Duncan Cameron, whose Invasion of the Waikato had ground to a halt, determined to attack the pā with the majority of his forces to destroy the King Movement's allies. By the end of April the British were ready to attack, with 1,700 men, opposed by 230 Māori. British troops included the 68th Durham Light Infantry and 43rd Monmouth Light Infantry.

A heavy bombardment was begun at daybreak on 29 April 1864 and continued for eight hours. The British had 15 artillery pieces including one of 110 pounds (50 kg). By mid afternoon the pā looked as if it had been demolished and there was a large breach in the center of the palisade. At 4 pm the barrage was lifted and 300 troops were sent up to capture and secure the position.

The British forces suffered severe losses and retreated. There was no second assault. During the night the Māori gave assistance to the wounded and collected their weapons, and by day break they had abandoned the position. Gate Pā was the single most devastating defeat suffered by the British military in the whole of the New Zealand land wars, with 111 casualities and deaths.

Gate Pā was not quite what it appeared to be. From the British positions it looked like fairly large strongpoint occupying the entire hill top. In fact it was much smaller being two low redoubts on either side of the ridge joined by a deep trench about 40 m long and the whole shielded by a strong wooden palisade. It seems likely that British concentrated their barrage towards the centre, where the palisade collapsed and where the assault was made. Meanwhile the two redoubts had been built very strongly with deep and effective bomb proof shelters. The Māori may have been deafened by the bombardment but as soon as it ended they were able to ambush the British troops.

Jane Foley and Gate Pā

An often retold tale of the battle concerns that night. The wounded, including Lieutenant Colonel Henry Booth of the 43rd Monmouth Light Infantry, lay in the pa calling for water. And water was indeed given to them, not by the soldiers, but, so the story goes, by a young Maori woman, Heni Te Kirikaramu also known as Heni Pore or Jane Foley, whose compassion is remembered to this day. It must, however, be acknowledged that although Colonel Booth is said before he died to have told of a Maori woman who spoke English gave him water, and she too, made this claim some 30 years later, there are those who believe that it may have been Henare Taratoa who took pity on the wounded. It is he who is depicted on the monument to the dead of Gate Pa in the mission cemetery, and also in the window of Bishop Selwyn’s Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire, England. (The Right Reverend George Augustus Selwyn (1809–1878) was the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand. On his return to the UK he governed Lichfield. He died at the bishop's palace, Lichfield, and was buried in the grounds of Lichfield Cathedral.)

HMNZS Taupo

Whilst chatting on line to Brett Payne, informing him that I had by then solved the puzzle of the flag image he had sent me, we diverged at a tangent as we often do, when I mentioned that during the period of the Korean war my father in law, then a recently qualified medical student from Edinburgh, received a commission on the Royal New Zealand Navy, and was posted as medical officer aboard HMNZS Taupo, and he was based and sailed from Devonport, Auckland. Brett quickly came up with an extraordinary coincidence. Firstly a quick Googling of “Taupo” had turned up the fact that the RNZN had just taken delivery of a new HMNZS Taupo:

HMNZS TAUPO was accepted into the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) on 29 May 2009. Taupo will be used to operate around New Zealand's 200 Nautical Mile EEZ (Economic Exclusion Zone). It's secondary role will be sea training for members of the RNZN. Taupo will be based at Devonport Naval Base.

The second coincidence is that whilst he was visiting the Aukland Museum where he had photographed the flag he had sent to me, he had photographed a naval craft in the channel. He quickly downloaded it from his camera, and it seems almost certain that he had, just by luck, caught the new HMNZS Taupo:

I think my father-in-law is going to be delighted to receive these images as I doubt the news of this new ship has reached his County Durham , UK, home.

Flying Saturday July 4, 2009.

Fourth of July............Stars and Stripes today!!

In the United States, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, picnics, concerts, baseball games, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.

Listen to Stars and Stripes Forever", a patriotic American march widely considered to be the magnum opus of composer John Philip Sousa. By act of Congress, it is the National March of the United States of America. Click on the flag....

The flag of the United States consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars. The fifty stars on the flag represent the fifty U.S. states. It is sometimes said that the thirteen stripes represent the original thirteen colonies that rebelled against the British Crown and became the first states in the Union.

Nicknames for the flag include the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, and The Star-Spangled Banner (also the name of the national anthem).

John Sousa

John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, D.C. on November 6, 1854 His parents were of Portuguese, Spanish, and Bavarian (German) descent; his grandparents were Portuguese refugees. Sousa started his music education by playing the violin at the age of six. When Sousa reached the age of 13, his father, a trombonist in the Marine Band, enlisted his son in the United States Marine Corps as an apprentice to keep him from joining a circus band. Sousa served his apprenticeship for seven.

The Sousaphone

The Sousaphone was developed in the 1890s by C.G. Conn at the request of John Philip Sousa, who was unhappy with the hélicons used at that time by the United States Marine Band.

Flying Friday July 3, 2009.

Today, July 3 is the anniversary of that day in 1938 when the world speed record for a steam railway locomotive was set in England, by the Mallard, which reached a speed of 126 mph.(203 km/h). The designer grew up in Derbyshire, so the Derbyshire flag will fly.

The Derbyshire flag came about as a result of a feature on BBC Radio Derby in 2006. The flag, was unveiled on 22 September 2006.

Number 4468 Mallard is a London and North Eastern Railway Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive built at Doncaster, England in 1938. While in other respects a relatively typical member of its class, it is historically significant for being the holder of the world speed record for steam locomotives.

Mallard was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley as an express locomotive specially built to power high-speed streamlined trains. Its wind-tunnel-tested, aerodynamic body allowed it to reach speeds of over 100 mph (160 km/h). Mallard was in service until 1963, when it was retired, having covered almost one and a half million miles (2.4 million km).

Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley (19 June 1876 – 5 April 1941)

Gresley was born on 19th June 1876, the fifth child of the rector of Netherseal (present day Derbyshire), the Reverend Nigel Gresley.

He was raised in Netherseal, Derbyshire, a member of a family long seated at Gresley, Derbyshire. After attending school in Sussex and at Marlborough College, Gresley served his apprenticeship at the Crewe works of the London and North Western Railway, afterwards becoming a pupil under John Aspinall at Horwich of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR). After several minor appointments with the L&YR he was made Outdoor Assistant in the Carriage and Wagon Department in 1901; in 1902 he was appointed Assistant Works Manager at Newton Heath depot, and Works Manager the following year.

This rapid rise in his career was maintained, for in 1904 he became Assistant Superintendent of the Carriage and Wagon Department of the L&YR. A year later he moved to the Great Northern Railway (GNR) as Carriage and Wagon Superintendent. He succeeded Henry A. Ivatt as CME of the GNR on 1 October 1911. At the 1923 Grouping he was appointed CME of the newly-formed LNER (the post had originally been offered to the ageing John G. Robinson; Robinson declined and suggested the much younger Gresley), and in 1936 he was awarded a knighthood by King Edward VIII and an honorary DSc by Manchester University. During the 1930s Sir Nigel Gresley lived at Salisbury Hall, near St. Albans in Hertfordshire. In the moat Gresley developed an interest in breeding wild birds and ducks, intrigingly amongst the species were Mallard ducks! The Hall still exists today as the home of the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre.

In 1936 Gresley designed the 1500V DC locomotives for the proposed electrification of the Woodhead Line, which ran through north Derbyshire, between Manchester and Sheffield.

Gresley died after a short illness on 5 April 1941 and was buried in Netherseal, Derbyshire.

The LNER Class A3 Pacific locomotive no. 4472 "Flying Scotsman" (originally no. 1472) was built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of H.N. Gresley.

Finally.............

.............you would be wrong if you thought I did not look after my childhood Hornby 00 train set, circa 1958, with its own A4 4-6-2 Pacific loco, which still runs a dream, operated here by my daughter Fiona.

Post Script

The following letter appeared in The Times (London) on July 4, coincidentally:

From The Times

July 4, 2009

A fitting memorial for Gresley

Reader's letter appealing for grave of the designer of the Flying Scotsman to be restored proves successful

Sir, A year ago I wrote a letter referring to the 70th anniversary of the world speed record for a steam engine when an A4 Class streamlined engine of the LNER, Mallard, reached a maximum speed of 126 miles per hour on July 3, 1938. The record was never broken.

A sign commemorating the great event stands beside the East Coast Main Line on Stoke Bank. Mallard’s designer, the chief mechanical engineer of the LNER, was Sir Nigel Gresley, who designed also the famous Flying Scotsman engine.

I had visited Sir Nigel’s grave and saw with dismay it had become very run down and wrote to The Times hoping for support to restore the grave. You kindly published the letter (July 5, 2008) and forwarded to me a number of responses.

The appeal has been very successful and the grave of Gresley and the similar grave alongside of his wife, Ethel, have been restored; the rededication service takes place in Netherseal, Derbyshire, on July 24.

May I thank The Times for recognising the historic significance of this appeal and your readers who have been inspired to respond so generously.

Gordon Collier

Hitchin, Herts

Flying Thursday, July 2, 2009.

Today I am flying the Grand UnionFlag in Vernon St. This present heat wave does not provide good flag wind all day, so spot the flag in the afternoon when the thunder clouds are growing !

The Grand Union flag

In 2 days time, July 4, it will be Independence day in USA, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Today, July 2, might in other circumstrances have been celebrated as it was actually that day in 1776 that The Lee Resolution, also known as the resolution of independence, was approved by the Second Continental Congress declaring the Thirteen Colonies to be independent of the British Empire.

The Lee resolution: Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

At the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, the United States had no official national flag. The Grand Union Flag has historically been referred to as the "First National Flag"

Although it has never had any official status, it was used early in the American Revolutionary War by George Washington and formed the basis for the design of the first official U.S. flag. The origins of the design are unclear. It closely resembles the British East India Company flag of the same era, and by some it is held that the Company flag indeed inspired the design. However, the Company flag could have from 9 to 13 stripes, and was not allowed to be flown outside the Indian Ocean.Both flags could have been easily constructed by simpy sewing white stripes to a British Red Ensign, a common flag throughout Britain and its colonies.

The British East India Company flag of the same era

Flying Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

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:

http://vernonflag.blogspot.com/2009/06/flying-saturday-june-13-2009.html

Tuesday, June 30, 2009.

The Flag of Scotland is a white saltire, a crux decussate (X-shaped cross) representing the cross of the Christian martyr Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, on a blue field. It is named the Saltire or the Saint Andrew's Cross.

Well done Andy Murray !! You deserve a rest today, and so do the rest of the UK for keeping us up watching Wimbledon until 10.40 pm .

Vernonflag is resting too, there will be no flag flying today!

Flying Monday June 29, 2009

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.

See also my blog of June 13 where I gave some more details of the evolution of the Canadian national flags. http://vernonflag.blogspot.com/2009/06/flying-saturday-june-13-2009.html