Australasian Olympic Team, 1908-1912
Australia and New Zealand competed as a single team at the 1908 London and 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Their flag was a blue ensign with the Southern Cross under a Tudor Crown. When the Olympics resumed after World War I, both countries competed separately.
New Zealand Police (?-Present)
The New Zealand Police have a weird blue ensign where the flag in the top left corner is the New Zealand flag instead of the British flag, but since the New Zealand flag is itself a blue ensign, this means that there’s a tiny 1/16th size British flag up there in the corner of the flag. Looks positively puny compared to the badge.
M&M’s Flags, Part 1
This year, Mars brought out limited edition red, white, and blue peanut M&M’s to celebrate the jubilee and the Olympics and general Britishness. It got me wondering… How many countries could Mars flog this product to?
I attempted 21 of a possible 30, the following NOT being included, as they were too hard:
- Cambodia
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Dominican Republic
- Luxembourg (same layout as the Netherlands flag, but different shade of blue)
- Nepal
- Paraguay
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
Sorry for the rubbish quality.
If Scotland became independent, what would happen to Australia and New Zealand’s flags (since their designs have the Union Jack, which uses a blue background and white saltire to represent Scotland)?
Nothing. Australia and New Zealand are fully independent countries and they can have any flag they want. They would have the option of altering their flag, but they wouldn’t have to if they didn’t want to (and if they were going to go through the trouble of changing their flags it would probably be to something entirely different.)
I also don’t imagine the United Kingdom would change its flag even if Scotland gained independence. The Union Flag is a classic design with a lot of history behind it, and from what I understand it’s pretty well-loved in Britain.
Harris & Ewing. Catt, Mrs. Carrie Chapman. With Flags of 22 Nations. 1917 (Library of Congress LC-DIG-hec-08297)
Okay now this is totally fucking rad.
On one of my regular trawls through the Library of Congress (as part of my real job) I stumbled across this photo of the women’s suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt standing next to a collection of flags. That’s kind of cool in its own right, but there are two specific flags in there that make it even cooler: The flag of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (second row, second from the right), and the Falcon flag of Iceland (top row, third from the right).
Now I’ve seen drawings and descriptions of both of these flags, but I have never seen real photographs of them. I’m pretty sure all the images online are reconstructions based on second-hand sources. These are actual photographs! How cool is that?
Also on display in this image: A British South Africa Company ensign, A British Indian ensign, the United Tribes of New Zealand flag (or something like it), an early version of the flag of Wales, the 1868-1921 Canadian red ensign, what I think might be the 1871-1918 civil flag of Oldenburg, an Irish patriotic flag, the 48-star United States flag, and a dozen more.
Seriously this is such an awesome image. I can’t even DEAL.
bilbeaux asked: Have you seen the (unofficial) redesign of the New Zealand flag by Hundertwasser? It's really pretty.
I have and I agree. Hundertwasser’s Koru flag is a very pretty and striking design which nicely incorporates the country’s Māori heritage. I think I prefer the classic Silver Fern as a flag for New Zealand but this is still a great flag.
Two more color plates of flags and banners from Amie’s Universal Encyclopedia, 1882.
Nothing like that old timey “ra ra we’re British we’re so great look at our big fancy empire” patriotism. I love how half of these flags have their only distinguishing feature obscured but every single Union Jack is fully visible. Also interesting is the very un-crosslike Southern Cross on the Australian flag and the weird anthropomorphic sun on the British East Africa ensign.
