Flags of Great Britain and her Empires

by

Bryn Monnery and Andy Goddard


The United Kindgom of Great Britain and Ireland

The Union Flag of Great Britain and Ireland

The current union flag is a mixture of the Cross of St. George and the Cross of St. Andrew, the English and Scottish flags respectively. Wales, being a principality, is not represented on the flag. The Cross of House Fitzgerald was removed on the unification of Eire and replaced with a laural symbolising Irish loyalty to the crown. The flag was changed in 2019 with the final unification of Ireland. This flag is flown over the entire Commonwealth.

The UK is a constitutional monarchy under the royal line of House Windsor. Their crest is:

The Queens flag, represents the constituant countries of the UK. England-Wales first and fourth, the Lion Rampant of Scotland second and the harp of Ireland third.

The constituant parts of Great Britain are:

England

Scotland

Wales

Guernsey

Alderney

Sark

Jersey

Herm

Isle of Man
 

The United British Provinces of Eire

The Emerald Ensign of Eire.

Ireland has special dispensation from the crown to fly their own flag over parliment and on land. The official flag of Ireland is the Union Flag of Great Britain and Ireland and this flies at Equal height to the Emerald flag and the relevent provincial flag outside all UK government building in Ireland. The fact that the Leinster harp appears on the flag has caused some problems in other provinces, particularly Ulster, who has readapted the old Northern Ireland flag as a matter of pride.

Britain and Ireland were unified by the effects or the Twilight War (WW3), King Charles III maintained control of the south of England while the rest of the British Isles (including the provinces of Ireland) collapsed into anarchy and chaos. As the English government expanded it sphere of influence and pacified England and Wales an urgent appeal came from Ireland. The paramilitary groups had become warlords and were in a state of constant warfare, the South had been annexed several Irish Nationalist derived groups (except Dublin, which had reverted to the Pale territories under a dynamic ex-IDF officer). Ulster was heavily disputed, the Nationalists had tried to exterminate the Protestants who returned the favour. Crude chemical weapons were manufactured, the death toll rose.

In 2006 General Sheil of the Pale Federation and Prime Minister Trimbell of the Ulster Freedom Faction were recognised as Peers of the Realm, the seeds from which the new Unified Ireland would grow. With British support and logistics these factions gained dominance (they had the only Gas Masks for example) and others joined. Ireland was officially unified in 2019, when the last warlords were killed by British troops in Londonderry, Ulster. Of a population of 3 million less than 400,000 survived to see this new Ireland and these were mostly in the North Ulster and Pale regions were British aid was available.

Ireland has it's own parliment but the Lords sit as the upper house. Ireland is over represented in the House but the Irish Lords are still a fairly minor voice with only 33 Lords, including the Archbishop of Ireland and the Cardinal of Ireland. The provinces still fly their own flags. It should be noted that the provinces are not administrative divisions but historically seperate countries.

Province of Connacht

Province of Leinster

Province of Munster

Province of Ulster

Also in common use in Belfast is the pre-Unification flag of Northern Ireland

20th century Ulster
 

Anglo-Canadian Greenland

 Anglo-Canadian Greenland.

Greenland's sovereignty has been continuely erroded since they opened themselves to mining by the Anglo-Canadian Crown Corparation LTD. in the second half of the 21st century. The flag was changed on the centenery of the treaty with Denmark which sceeded all Mining rights to the company. By this point the local government had ceased to exist in any meaningful sense at the British Crown declared a protectorate over the country to stop a decent into civil war. Anglo-Canadian has made Greenland.
 

British Antarctica Crown Colony

British Anarctica.

This territory includes the Falkland Islands, South Sandwich Islands, South Georgia and British Antarctica. It is heavily disputed by Argentina and her satellites who call this "Stolen Territory", dispite never having been territory of any nation other than Britain except for brief periods of invasions. They was very little interest in this area in the 21st century, except for a brief undeclared war against Argentina in 2088 over an attempt to annex this territory into Greater Argentina which was defeated by a British task force with Canadian help.

In the 22nd century things changed dramatically. Tantalum was struck under the ice and 4 powers (Australia, Britain, France and Scandanavia) where involved in a tense confrontation. The main vain was in British Antarctica but crossed over into French and Australian territory. The Scandanavians tried to shift their borders to gain a tantalum supply but a coalition of the other 3 powers stabilised the borders. This was the main source of British tantalum, in addition to the African supply via the ESA.

The Falkland Islands and South Georgia and Sandwich have their own flags from when they were seperate colonies.

Flag of the Falkland Islands

The Falklands are mainly a British Naval base. Falkland Sound has been sealed with smart mines and extensive defensive systems to protect the worlds largest naval base. This houses the British South Atlantic Fleet, equal in size to the combined forces of every single Latin American nation and tasked with defending Antarctica.

Other Territories on Earth

These in the main use their current (1999) flags with the new Union flag. West Indian territories which reverted to Britain use their old flags.

Serene Territories

The British Serene Luna Territories.

When the second space race started in the second half of the 21st century Great Britain had a choice, go it alone or throw in with their French Allies. They went with the French. As a consequence Great Britain gained a lot of territory on the Moon and Mars, by the time of the expeditions to the outer planets Britain was ready to build her own craft and claimed several of the Jovian satellites (until she finally signed the Melbourne Accords).

They use the standard union flag.

Wellsland

The British Martian Territories.

Britain is currently commited to a terraforming project on Mars with the other ESA countries. When Mars is suitible for habitation in 50 years, Britain will have the South Polar Regions and Cydonia.

The British territory was named for the 19th century author H.G. Wells, who was the first man to write of life on Mars. The flag is a red ensign with the three lions of England, the 3 is also symbolic of the "Martians" of that book.

The Dominion of Wellon (Ex-New Albion Crown Colony)

 New Albion (Wellon)-Alpha Centuri A.

The Dominion of Wellon is the largest British off-world possession. It gained Dominion status as of 2277. The flag is the constellation known as "The Plough", the addition star is in fact Sol, Earths Sun.

An article about this Nation is available here.

The Dominion of Alicia (Ex- New Cymru Crown Colony)

Dominion of Alicia -Queen Alice's Star.

Alicia gained dominion status in 2287. It is the largest most dominant colony the world of Beowulf and current ebroiled in near open warfare against French colonists in Europe Neuve.

Alicia has yet to change her flag and has no intensions of doing so, the old New Cymru (New Wales) flag still flies proudly.

New Africa Crown Colony

New Africa Crown Colony-Beta Canum Venticorum.

New Africa uses the blue ensign the the Lion Rampant of Scotland
 

New Cornwall Crown Colony

 New Cornwall-61 Ursae Majoris.

Although yet to be opened to mass colonisation the proud flag of New Cornwall flys over 61 Ursae Majoris. It follows the blue ensign model with a bear representing the Ursa Majoris constellation (Great Bear )of which this colony is part.
 

Crater Crown Colony

Crater - Henry's Star

Crater is a troubled colony. Extreme mineral wealth has been found including a yet to be tapped major tantalum seem but strife between the Miners and the Royal Crater Police Force keeps this world from reaching its full potential.

The flag is a blue ensign model with Henry's and Catherines stars, the former flaring.
 

De Ville Bis Crown Colony
 
 
 

DeVillebis Station-Claarkstar.

De Ville Bis is technically an outpost rated installation but the high revenue brought in from servicing ships going to and from the American-Australian Arm has resulted in colonial status for the stations 2000 inhabitants and full rights within the Commonwealth. This status means that De Ville Bis is one of the most orderly stations encountered in human space and is a major bastion against the encroachment of piracy from the Chinese Arm.

It is a defaced Union flag with the crown over a lion, the flag of the British Clarkstar Company with the crown added.
 

New Liverpool

New Liverpool - Zeta Zucanae

While not technically British territory all foreign governments respect the free living New Liverpudlians as citizens of the British Commonwealth (all have this status). As long as relationships remain cordial with the Manchu HMG is happy to leave this territory alone. Plans do exist for an emergency troop and naval reinforcement in the event of another Manchurian War.

The flag was a homebuilt affair, created when the King visited in 2273 by two scientists in a shed. It is the Wellonic flag with red stars instead of yellow ones.

New Kimberly

New Kimberly - Neubayern 6c (Kimberly)

This is an independent British operated mining concern, mainly dependent on the Niebelungen colonial government for trade although the 2 active mines on Neubayern 6c surface with a joint orbital refinery (New Kimberly and the Brazilian Nova Grosso mines) maintain a total mining/ refinery package to increase profit margins and could trade with Beowulf, Beta Canum or Earth easily enough. Some tension exists with the Imperial German government on Earth as the consessions have the only known remaining tantalum seem in system. The colonial government has no part in this and maintains seperate embassies in Britain and Brazil. They also veto any Imperial Naval forces being permanently based insystem, partially out of fear of disrupting the flow of tantalum and other minerals to their factories and shipyards and partly fearful of an attempt to reign in their prosperitity and freedoms (little changed with Unification except the off world postage stamps). The Niebelungen government is under constant pressure from the DSKM to try and take over Neubayern 6c for the tantalum, the largest remaining stock in Germanies domain since Neumark was mined out.

The flag shows Neubayern 6c (known on British charts as Kimberly and commonly called that expect on official German charts which just leave it as Neubayern 6c) with the sun of Neubayern behind, hence the halo. The belt of stars represents the 6 British mines, the last being added 2291 and another planned for 2307.

This is considered a serious flashpoint in light of the current economic slump mainly being blamed on the Imperial German Colonial Office on Earth. The mines have begun to trade elsewhere, further cutting Niebelungens profits.