Facts C
Seniority and Privilege
onvention has it that our three principal British ensigns are ranked
in seniority from White, through Blue to Red with White the senior – but it was not always thus. Long before Nelson the British Navy was divided into three sections, or Squadrons, each commanded by an Admiral and ranked Red, Blue and White with White the junior. Merchant ships wore a Red ensign. The Elizabethans changed the naval formations keeping Red the senior but making Blue the Junior – and this remained the order of precedence in British warships for more than 300 years. Nelson was an Admiral of the White and it was probably reverence for the victor of Trafalgar that led the Royal Navy in 1864 to adopt the White ensign as its universal fl ag, reserving the Blue for other civilian- manned government vessels and leaving the Merchant Navy – by far, of course, the most numerous part of the total British fl eet – to continue with the Red. Many government departments adopted the practice of putting their own badge or symbol on their blue ensigns – defacing them, to use the technical term – and other clubs and organisations entitled to a Blue ensign also adopted the practice. To deface any of our national fl ags special permission of the Queen must be sought and obtained. This
permission is granted by Royal Warrant – sometimes to an individual but most usually now to the Club or organisation, which then must issue individual permits to their members. Given all this palaver, and
the fact that not everyone who asks for permission is granted it, it is not surprising that there is a good deal of jealousy – or snobbery, if you prefer – manifested over who may fl y which fl ag and what that fl ag says about their importance.
The pecking order today is
considered to be: Navy and RYS;
White ensign – Royal
Undefaced Blue ensign Defaced Blue; Defaced Red; Undefaced Red –
everybody else.
All the ensigns other than the Red are known as Privileged Ensigns (because of the special permission required) – but if there is anyone out there who thinks there is something under-privileged about wearing our nation’s plain, ordinary, undefaced Red ensign, let them visit London and a little patch of hallowed earth on the south side of Trinity Square, near Tower Hill tube station. There in a vast sunken garden walled in stone, the traffi c noise hushed into reverent quiet, one may view panel after panel after engraved panel with the names of the Red ensign-fl ying merchant ships lost in the service of this country and the names of the 35,792 seamen and women lost with them and who have no known grave save the sea. And let them ask themselves who bears the privilege?
cywinter 2011 51
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