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Peterborough, Ontario (Canada)

Peterborough County

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

Peterborough
Current Flag

See also:

Peterborough

Peterborough, population 81032 in 2016, lies in Peterborough County, southern Ontario, 125 kilometres northeast of Toronto and about 270 kilometers southwest of Ottawa on Highway 7.

Current Flag

Text and image(s) from Canadian City Flags, Raven 18 (2011), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) by permission of Eugene Ipavec.

The flag of the City of Peterborough has a field of dark green. Six wavy stripes alternating white over blue run horizontally from hoist to fly; behind them in the centre is a stylized sword. The stripes have eight undulations; their combined width is one-fourth the height of the flag. The sword, three-fourths the height of the flag, points downward; its hilt is golden yellow and blade is white, both with black details. The blade tapers slightly from the hilt and ends in a 90-degree point.
Christopher Bedwell, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Symbolism

Peterborough, a city on the Otonabee River in southern Ontario, was named in honour of Peter Robinson, an early Canadian politician who promoted the first large-scale immigration to the area in 1825. The green represents Ireland, the Emerald Isle, from which 1,878 Robinson immigrants came, and the fields and forests of the area. It also represents the champs (French for “fields”) in “Champlain”, a reference to Samuel de Champlain’s exploration of the area in 1615. The sword recalls the veteran soldiers and officers of the British army who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 and then settled in Otonabee Township. The wavy white and blue stripes represent the Otonabee River and many lakes on which Peterborough’s early industry was founded. The flag is a banner of the city’s arms.
Christopher Bedwell, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Selection

Oswald Cook, a Fellow of the Heraldry Society of Canada, suggested to Mayor Sylvia Sutherland that a flag could be derived from the coat of arms based on the charges on the shield. The city then utilized the elements from the shield in the form of a flag. The coat of arms had been created by the College of Arms, London and granted by the English Kings of Arms on 9 May 1950, then adopted by the city council on 7 May 1951. Flag adopted: 7 August 1986
Christopher Bedwell, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Designer

Robert D. Watt, Chief Herald of Canada, Canadian Heraldic Authority.
Christopher Bedwell, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

More about the flag

The flag is a banner of arms, blazoned, "Vert a sword point downwards Argent pommel and hilt Or surmounted by a fess barry wavy of six Argent and Azure."
Rob Raeside, 7 June 2017