The Red Ensign or Red Duster is the civil ensign of the United Kingdom. It is one of the British ensigns, and it is used either plain or defaced with either a badge or a charge, mostly in the right half.
It is the flag flown by British merchant or passenger ships since 1707. Prior to 1707, an English Red Ensign and a Scottish Red Ensign were flown by the English Royal Navy and the Royal Scots Navy, respectively. The precise date of the first appearance of these earlier Red Ensigns is not known, but surviving payment receipts indicate that the English navy was paying to have such flags sewn in the 1620s.
History England (pre-1707)
The Royal Navy introduced squadron colours during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) to subdivide the English fleet into three squadrons. There were three classes of admirals, differentiated by the colours of their flags. They were, in order of precedence, the Admiral of the Red Squadron, the Admiral of the White Squadron, and the Admiral of the Blue Squadron. These were abolished as promotional ranks with the reorganisation of the Royal Navy in 1864.
Prior to the reorganisation of the Royal Navy in 1864, the plain Red Ensign had been the ensign of one of three squadrons of the Royal Navy, the Red Squadron, as early as 1558. By 1620, the plain Red Ensign started to appear with the Cross of St George in the upper-left canton.
The Colony of Massachusetts used the Red Ensign from its founding; after a sermon by Roger Williams in 1636, equating crosses with the papacy, Governor Endicott ordered the St George Cross removed from the flag. The Great and General Court of the colony found that Endicott had "exceeded the lymits of his calling", and yet left the flag without its cross for a number of decades afterward.
In 1674, a Royal Proclamation of King Charles II (1630–1685, reigned 1660–1685) confirmed that the Red Ensign was the appropriate flag to be worn by English merchant ships. The wording of the 1674 proclamation indicates that the flag was customarily being used by English merchantmen before that date. At this time, the ensign displayed the Cross of St George in the canton. This changed in 1864, when an order in council provided that the Red Ensign was allocated to merchantmen.
Scotland (pre-1707)
It is probable that the cross-saltire was adopted by the Scots as a national ensign at a very early period, but there seems no direct evidence of this before the fourteenth century. The earliest Scottish records were lost at sea in the ship that was sent to return them to that country, whence they had been carried off, with the Stone of Destiny, by King Edward I (1239–1307, reigned 1272–1307). Prior to 1707, the Scottish Red Ensign was flown by ships of the Royal Scots Navy, with a saltire in the canton.
The Scottish Ensign has been flown unofficially by many Scottish vessels for a number of years. In 2015, a movement was launched by Lieutenant Commander George MacKenzie RNR to have the Scottish Ensign officially recognised, on the basis that the Merchant Shipping Act of 1995 permits Her Majesty the Queen in Council or a Secretary of State to approve "any colours consisting of the Red Ensign defaced or modified". Supporters cited the example of the States of Jersey, who in 2010 were permitted to use a "voluntary or informal" red ensign, adorned with a Plantagenet crown. The movement culminated in a petition for the Scottish Government to seek a warrant from the U.K. government to reintroduce the flag as an "informal or voluntary ensign" for Scottish merchant vessels. MacKenzie stressed that the "petition was not meant to replace or supersede the British Red Ensign". The petition received the support of MSP Michael Russell, and other Merchant sailors and members of sailing trade groups. The petition gained enough support that it was passed onto the Scottish Government who recommended Mr MacKenzie "raise the issue with the Secretary of State directly or through his MP".
Great Britain (1707–1800)
Upon the legislative union of England and Scotland in 1707, the small Royal Scots Navy came to an end as a separate force, and the "Union" colours (invented on the union of the two crowns a hundred years before) were inserted in all ensigns, naval and mercantile. An Order in Council of 21 July 1707 established as naval flags of the royal standard the Union flag and "the ensign directed by her Majesty since the said Union of the two Kingdoms", which from the coloured drafts attached to the order is seen to be the Red Ensign. The White Ensign and Blue Ensign are not mentioned in this Order; evidently the Red Ensign was alone regarded as the legal ensign of Great Britain and the others as merely variations of it for tactical purposes.W. G. Perrin, British Flags (1922)
In 1707, Acts of Union, ratifying the Treaty of Union, which had been agreed the previous year, were passed by the parliaments of England and Scotland, thereby uniting the Kingdom of Scotland with the Kingdom of England (which included the Principality of Wales) into a new state with the name "Kingdom of Great Britain". This resulted in a new Red Ensign which placed the first Union Flag, including a saltire in the first quarter. The new design of the Red Ensign was proclaimed by Queen Anne (1665–1714, reigned 1702–1714), who indicated that it was to be used by both the navy and ships owned by "our loving subjects".
The flag was flown by ships of the Thirteen Colonies in North America before the American Revolution. Modification of the flag was used to express the discontent of the colonists before and during the outbreak of the revolution. This can be seen in both the Taunton flag and the George Rex flag. It also formed the basis of the Continental Union Flag of 1775, which served as the first American national flag, although it differed slightly from the primary Red Ensign in that it had a squared Union Flag in the canton.
United Kingdom (1801–present)
In 1801, with another Act of Union, Ireland joined with Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which resulted in the present Union Flag being added to the canton. The St Patrick's Cross was added to the Union Flag and, accordingly, to the first quarters of the British ensigns.
The Merchant Shipping Act 1854 included a specific provision that the Red Ensign was the appropriate flag for a British merchantman. This provision was repeated in successive British shipping legislation (i.e., 1889, 1894 (section 73) and 1995).
Until 1864, the Red Ensign was also the principal ensign of the Royal Navy, and as such it was worn by ships of the Red Squadron of the navy, as well as by those warships that were not assigned to any squadron (i.e., those sailing under independent command). The White Ensign and the Blue Ensign were also used by the Royal Navy.
Many in the Admiralty felt that the Royal Navy's use of three separate ensigns (i.e., the red, white, and blue) was outdated and confusing. Many also felt that merchantmen should be clearly distinguishable from warships. In July 1864, an order-in-council provided that the White Ensign was the ensign of the Royal Naval Service. The Blue Ensign was designated as the proper national colours for ships commanded by an officer of the Royal Naval Reserve, and (with an appropriate badge) as national colours for ships in government service. The Red Ensign was assigned to British merchantmen. This basic structure remains today.
A few years later (1867–1869), the Admiralty determined that the Blue Ensign charged with an appropriate badge in the fly would be used as the ensign by those ships in the armed, or public, service of the many British colonies. Most British colonies needed to use the Blue Ensign due to the fact that most had government vessels; some colonies, such as South Australia, had warships. As a result, the Blue Ensign was used throughout the Empire and thus became the model for the flags used by a number of colonies and former colonies in the British Empire. At the same time, the Red Ensign (which was designated in 1864 as the flag for merchant shipping) was used by merchantmen of those colonies or territories which obtained an Admiralty warrant. Warrants were issued, chronologically, to British North Borneo (1882), British East Africa (1890), Canada (1892), New Zealand (1899), British South Africa (1902), Australia (1903), British Somaliland (1904), Union of South Africa (1910), Newfoundland (1918), Indian Native States (1921), Cyprus (1922), Tanganyika (1923), Western Samoa (1925) and Palestine (1927). Those areas, notably including British India, that did not have an Admiralty warrant used the plain Red Ensign, although unofficial local versions of the Red Ensign were used.
, Red Ensigns charged with the local emblem are available to be used by ships registered on several of the component registers of the Red Ensign Group: Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, and Isle of Man.
Plain Red Ensign
The plain Red Ensign is the civil ensign or merchant ensign of the United Kingdom. The flag has overall ratio of 1:2 with the Union occupying one quarter of the field and placed in the canton.
Defaced Red Ensign Some public bodies or national institutions are authorised to fly Red Ensigns defaced with a badge or emblem. These include: Ensign Body Company of Watermen and Lightermen Eastern Sea Fisheries Maritime Volunteer Service National Register of Historic Vessels National Register of Historic Vessels Fleet North Wales and North West Sea Fisheries Royal National Lifeboat Institution South Wales Sea Fisheries Trinity House
The Red Ensign defaced with a specific club's badge or emblem is allowed to be hoisted as the national ensign by members of the following yacht clubs: Ensign Club Brixham Yacht Club House of Commons Yacht Club Lloyd's Yacht Club Royal Dart Yacht Club Royal Fowey Yacht Club Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club Royal Lymington Yacht Club Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club Royal Victoria Yacht Club Royal Windermere Yacht Club Royal Yachting Association St. Helier Yacht Club West Mersea Yacht Club
Flags based on the Red Ensign
British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies Bermuda
Bermuda, uniquely among British overseas territories, uses the Red Ensign as its land flag as well as at sea. The flag has apparently been flown unofficially since Bermuda's arms were granted in 1910. There appears to be no formal adoption of the Bermuda flag for use on land, although a 1969 Foreign and Commonwealth Office circular mentions its use. The white and green shield has a red lion holding a scrolled shield showing the sinking of the ship Sea Venture off of Bermuda in 1609. The Red Ensign is likely to have been chosen as Bermuda's land flag due to Canadian influence. (For the first half of the 20th century, Canada made use of the Red Ensign defaced with the Canadian shield as an unofficial land flag.) Bermuda's 2002 shipping legislation officially recognises the flag as an ensign for Bermudian registered ships. Prior to 2002, the flag was often used unofficially by Bermudian ships as an ensign, as reflected in Admiralty correspondence dating back to the 1950s. Bermuda (civil) Government vessels and maritime services use the defaced Blue Ensign, which is flown both from vessels and from shore facilities.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar features variant flags of the territory which incorporate the Gibraltar coat of arms into a Red Ensign. This is the only Overseas Territory not to adopt any such ensign as its territorial flag, although the ensigns may still be seen on vessels in the waters of the territory.
Isle of Man