The Blue Ensign reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Blue Ensign

The Blue Ensign is used either plain, or defaced with a badge or other emblem.

Table of contents

1 Plain blue ensign 2 Defaced blue ensign 2.1 National flags based on the blue ensign 3 External links

Plain blue ensign

The plain blue ensign is permitted to be flown, instead of the red ensign, by two categories of vessel:

• British merchant vessels whose officers and crew include a certain number of retired Royal Navy personnel, or Royal Navy reservists. The number and rank of such crew members required has varied over the years, as have the additional conditions required, since the system was first introduced in 1864. Permission to fly the blue ensign was suspended during both World War I and World War II.
• Vessels belonging to members of certain long-established British Yacht Clubs, all but one of which have "Royal" in their titles.

Defaced blue ensign

Defaced with a badge or emblem, the blue ensign forms the flag of:

• United Kingdom Government Departments or Public Bodies
• Many countries or territories that are or were in the past British colonies or possessions.

A law of 1864 allowed free use of the blue ensign in these two ways.

National flags based on the blue ensign

These include:

• Flag of Australia
  • Flag of Western Australia
• Flag of the British Indian Ocean Territory
• Flag of the British Virgin Islands
• Flag of the Cayman Islands
• Flag of the Cook Islands
• Flag of the Falkland Islands
• Flag of Fiji
• Flag of Montserrat
• Flag of New Zealand
• Flag of Pitcairn Islands
• Flag of Saint Helena
• Flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands
• Flag of Tuvalu

External links

Blue ensign page on the "Flags of the World" website

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