11th May 1918. The Director of Air Quartermaster Services wrote to the
Director of Naval Stores asking whether there was any objection on the part of
the Naval Authorities to the Royal Air Force flying flags of one of two
designs :--
(1) The ordinary Naval White Ensign omitting the St George's Cross ;
(2) The ordinary Blue Ensign with the colour pale Air Force Blue instead of
Navy Blue.
24th May 1918. The War Office wrote to the Air Ministry that they had no
objection to either or both flags.
10 June 1918. The Admiralty informed the Air Ministry that the use of the
Ensigns, with or without modifications, was to be deprecated, and suggested
that, subject to the King's approval, the Union Flag with some appropriate
added device might be found suitable for use as the Flag of the Royal Air
Force.
30th July 1918. Lord Weir, Secretary of State for Air replied that he
would certainly not press the request for the use of the White Ensign, as the
Royal Air Force flag, any further. The Naval Secretary, Sir Allan Everett, was
instructed by the First Lord to associate himself with Sir Godfrey Paine in
bringing out a design that would be acceptable to the Air Ministry without
being objectionable to the Navy.
New proposals:
A. RAF pilot's wings on an oval in the centre of a white-bordered Union Jack.
B. Same, but wings replaced by an eagle on a blue circle surrounded by white
garter, ensigned by crown. Same as the badge 1st April on
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/british_military/1918.html
16th August 1918. Comments in Admiralty Memo that the new proposal looked
like the King's Harbour Master's flag, and without
the badge, like letter D in the Naval Code (white-bordered Union Jack), also
known as the Pilot jack. "KHM flag is not
much used, and could be changed. Abolition of the Pilot Jack, a flag hard to
distinguish and expensive to make, would be welcomed."
27th August 1918. Air Council indicated that they wanted the white
bordered Union Flag without any defacement. The Board of Trade would not agree
to this, so the Air Council return to the original White Ensign proposal,
which was still opposed by the Admiralty.
30th September 1918. Air Ministry told the Admiralty that they proposed
submitting their request to HM the King for his approval.
12th October 1918. Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Tothill, 4th Sea Lord, and Lord
Wester Wemyss, 1st Sea Lord, were entirely opposed the use of the White
Ensign, defaced or otherwise, and the Air Ministry were informed that the
Admiralty were unable to assent.
25th October 1918. Air Ministry investigated the legal position. In the
opinion of the Treasury Solicitor it was not a legal question. Except for use
on ships, the only offence would be if the RAF flag contravened Defence of
Realm Regulation 25c. [This, I understand, was a regulation in force only in
war time.]
23rd December 1918. The King asked for the matter to be referred to the
War Cabinet. A sub-committee consisting of Mr. Long (?), Lord Wester Wemyss (1st Sea
Lord), Mr. Churchill (Secretary of State for War and the Royal Air Force),
General Wilson (Chief of the Imperial General Staff), General Seely, and General
Trenchard (formerly, and also later, Chief of Air Staff), was asked to put 'a
flag for the RAF' on their agenda.
17th April 1919. A proposed ensign, designed by General Seely and approved
by the Air Council, was flown from an airship, which circled Windsor Castle.
It was reported in The Times newspaper on the 19th April:
"On Thursday afternoon an airship flew very low around the Castle and quite
close to the Round Tower. This airship was flown by Major-General J.E.B. Seely
to display before the King, the General-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force, the
new flag of the force. This occasion was the first on which the flag had been
flown on an aircraft. The design has received the approval of the Air Council.
The appearance of the flag is similar to the White Ensign of the Royal Navy,
the two points of difference being that a blue cross takes the place of the
Red St George's cross in the normal emblem, and that the centre of the flag
bears in gold the Crown and Bird of the Royal Air Force."
However the King's Private Secretary had, on 17th April, informed the 1st Sea
Lord that HM the King considered it not appropriate to have the RAF flag
resembling an ensign.
by Martin Grieve
The flag, as described by The Times, is similar to this image which is
based on a
photograph in a book in the Eyewitness Guides Series; "Flag" by William
Crampton (page
47). The photograph is acknowledged to the Imperial War Museum, and is
captioned,
"This special ensign was produced for the Royal Air Force at the time of the
Armistice
celebrations in 1918." However the flag as described by General Seely in a
letter to Lord
Cromer is slightly different. "As compared with a drawing seen a fortnight
earlier, the
cross was twice as broad as on the White Ensign. Crown and wings in centre on
blue
cross, not on white diamond." [See note.]
4th October 1919. A schoolboy, one Master D.A.G. Smith of Blundell's
School, Tiverton, sends four suggested flags to the Air Ministry. One is white
with a Union Jack canton and the RAF roundel on the lower fly. They are
rejected.
January 1920. E. McKnight Kauffer, an American artist working in London
(he later drew some outstanding posters for London Transport) is asked to
submit four designs for an RAF flag. The designs were rejected, and the
Ministry quibbled over his bill.
February 1920. Senior RAF officers asked to choose between a number of
designs for an RAF flag. One is light blue with an RAF roundel in the centre,
but the officers prefer a white version. Air Vice Marshal Salmond (Air Officer
Commanding, Southern Area, at the time, and later Chief of Air Staff 1930-33)
suggested adding a Union Jack canton (making it the same as one of Master
Smith's suggestions). But the choice falls on what is the present flag.
10th June 1920. King provisionally approved blue flag with Union Jack canton
and large
target.
29th June 1920. Admiralty received a letter from the Air Ministry informing
them that the
Air Council had selected the design shown in the specimen flag accompanying
the letter
[Current RAF Ensign]. The letter ended; "It should be added that this design
has been
submitted with others to His Majesty the King, who has been pleased to signify
that it has
His provisional approval."
The Admiralty did not like the flag, but accept, saying, stiff-necked to the
end, that since the King has already approved the flag, 'Their Lordships find
themselves precluded from pressing their view, of the soundness of which they
remain convinced.'
7th July 1920. V.W. Baddeley (Secretary to the Admiralty?) wrote that the
College of
Arms had been consulted informally. "It seems that heraldically there
cannot
be two
shades of blue, so that it is the ordinary blue Ensign that is being proposed
by the Air
Ministry with the target defacement. Chester Herald suggests, although the
College
of Arms are not directly concerned, it would be better for the Air Ministry
flag, if they
have one, to be red and blue divided in quarters, with the Union jack in the
upper
dexter quarter. This would be heraldically correct. The College of Arms
dislike the
proposed target defacement though they cannot say that it is wrong."
8th July 1920. The Minutes show that a Board of Admiralty meeting agreed that
the RAF
should, like other departments of state, use the Union Flag ashore, and on
aircraft use
the Union Flag with the target. A letter setting-out this view was prepared
for dispatch
to the Air Ministry on 24th July 1920, but it may not have been sent.
Their Lordships were behind the times. The Union Jack had been rejected as a
national symbol on service aircraft (including those of the Royal Naval Air
Service) at the end of 1914, because it was too similar to German markings for
safety.
9th September 1920. Drawing of flag sent to Norry King of Arms, Inspector of
Regimental Colours, for registration.
31st December 1920. Royal Air Force Ensign. Air Ministry Press Communiqué 634.
31st December 1920. Air Ministry Weekly Order 1130. Royal Standard and Royal Air
Force
Ensign.
Late December 1920 / early January 1921. Master Smith writes to the Air
Ministry asking since his flag designs were rejected, why is the chosen flag
so like one of them. The Air Ministry reply, acknowledging his contribution to
the design process, but not giving him any money.
24th March 1921. Royal Air Force Ensign Order 1921. Light Blue, in the dexter
canton the
Union and in the centre of the fly of the flag three roundels superimposed red
upon white
upon blue.
What is strange is that Seeley (in a letter in AIR 2/155) also says that the
original alterations were made at the suggestion of the King. I suppose
if you're King, you can change your mind whenever you want... I also note that
the RAF were referring to the (blue) cross as a St. Michael's cross, to try and
differentiate between the proposed flag and the White Ensign, with its (red) St.
George's cross.
There is an example of the flag in the Imperial War Museum. The story that it
was flown from the Air Ministry building on Armistice Day 1918 comes from Ray
Allen in an article in Flag Bulletin vol.26 (1-3) pp.6-12. I suspect that the
information will have appeared on the item's record card at the Museum, so
someone, at some time, at the IWM must have believed it to be true, even though
the chronology appears at odds with the archive record. I couldn't find any
orders or invoices for this flag at the PRO, however, even though there was
material on some of the other suggested designs.
Ian Sumner, 7 October 2004
I am a little puzzled about the 1919 ensign with the blue cross and crown &
eagle – in that the eagle is shown as looking to the left. Is this correct?
Somewhere I have seen a drawing of this flag with the eagle facing to the right,
as it is in the RAF badge, and the RAF Blue ensign from 1986 for Marine Craft,
the RAF Sailing Association and the RAF Yacht Club. Scott Williamson, 14 September 2007
The original ensign is in the Imperial War Museum collection, and the eagle's
head does indeed face the left, even though the eagle in the RAF badge,
introduced in 1918, faces the other way. Ian Sumner, 15 September 2007
The reason the unofficial 1919 RAF Ensign had the eagle looking to the "left"
is that, traditionally, an animal is portrayed on a flag facing the hoist /
flagpole, so that it "looks towards the enemy" when the flag is carried forward. Miles Li, 15 September 2007
This is no longer the case. Thomas Woodcock, Somerset Herald, stated in 'The
Oxford Guide to Heraldry' (Oxford Univ. Press, 1988) p.198, that the tincture
bleu celeste was introduced into English heraldry by the College of Arms after
the Second World War specifically because of badges and awards to RAF units and
personnel. Ian Sumner, 7 October 2004
![[RAF proposal]](../images/g/gb_af19.gif)
by Martin Grieve