History of the Union Jack and Flags of the Empire

by Barlow Cumberland

60. Ensign of 7th Royal Fusiliers, 1775.

These instances could not all be incorrect, and their similarity shows that the form and proportions of the Union Jack of James I., as given in the Massachusetts document, were those which were subsequently used in the actual flags officially displayed at sea and on shore.

In all these Union Jacks the white of St. George is of the same width as the cross of St. Andrew, and from these evidences of the form of the flag, derived from such varied sources, we may fairly conclude that the allotment to the white border to St. George in the Union Jack, of a proportion equal to that then given to a national cross, had not only early authority, but also wide usage.

61. "King's Colour," 1781.

These were two-crossed Jacks. When the time came, in 1800, for the construction of the three-crossed Union Jack, the designers of the "draft" and the committee of selection would have been acquainted with the details of those previous flags. It is, indeed, stated that the various existing flags were submitted for their inspection. When, therefore, they gave the broad white border to St. George the same width as that of each of the crosses of St. Andrew and St. Patrick, namely, as the instructions stated, one-third of the red cross, they were only continuing the width and proportion allotted to it in the Union Jacks which had preceded, and with the actual examples to which they were accustomed.

The broad white of St. George, as we now see it, was not dependent upon any heraldic description, but is an heirloom of national descent, and was evidently continued by the designers of 1801 in its full proportion of the Union flag, not only to represent, as previously, the white ground of the English Jack, but also for the additional reason that it represents the white ground of the Irish Jack, which they were then adding to the Union flag. By this method the proportionate representation of the Jacks of the three kingdoms was intended and justified.

Another objection raised to the proportions of the present flag, by those on the side of the heraldic interpretation of the "blazon," is that the individual crosses are of less width in proportion to the size of the flag than they should be according to heraldic rules, and that, therefore, the dividing of the flag is incorrect.

We need again to be reminded that the flag makers were not simply placing three "crosses" upon a single flag, but were joining three "Jacks" into one Union Jack; yet it may be satisfactory to see that in the doing of this they have really fulfilled the rules of heraldry.