Tuesday, December 13, 2016

British flag

I'm watching Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell on Netflix and the character Strange is with Lord Wellington in a tent casually answering questions about what type of magic that Strange can produce that might be of use to Wellington. Presumably this is war with Napoleon, possibly even Waterloo. Wellington asks, "Can you kill a man with magic?"

Strange answers, "Another magician could but not a gentleman."

The next scene Strange lays hands on the hillside and the smaller rocks of uniform size shake out of the ground and rattle upward to assemble into a sort of macadam road.

I've never seen the flags in the background. They're new to me and BBC is great at this type of thing. But something seems wrong.


Now, I'm no vexillologist but the propellers seem to be spinning the wrong direction, the thick white diagonal bands are on the wrong side of the thinner red diagonal bands. I believe the flag is displayed backwards. I hate when the flag is displayed backwards. Don't you? Every British schoolboy would know this but you still see it sometimes, even in modern photos of British barracks in places like Afghanistan, and it's disconcerting because they're fighting for their country represented by their flag but treated as mere decoration. Am I wrong? I've never seen this flag with castle in the center and I don't know the evolved flag convention. The only thing that I'm going on is the propeller effect that occurs by the white bands that appear to spin backwards. Then, who am I to challenge the renowned scholars at BBC? 

Eh, this site has it the same way with red edge on the right. Maybe it's a thing that changes in war like the Japanese flag changes. Maybe it's a style choice. And then, maybe the site is wrong too.

8 comments:

Trooper York said...

I think it might be a regimental flag Chip.

There were not a lot of uniformity in flags of that era. America had a bunch of flags. The Gadsden and the Moultrie flags were both alternatives to the traditional stars and stripes.

Trooper York said...

That is an excellent series and the books are even better if a bit of a long slog.

Leland said...

It is backwards, but that's because the poll it is attached is to the right of the flag, so you are seeing the backside. You can see the smaller flag has the poll on the left and therefore is correctly oriented.

Chip Ahoy said...

Oh. The poles form an X. Didn't notice poles.

Mumpsimus said...

Yeah, that's a Regimental colors. (Sorry, colours). Each unit had its own version of the British flag, with added bits to show its history and honors (e.g. the sphinx with the word "Egypt" toward the bottom, to show it had fought in Egypt).

Leland said...

I didn't notice the smaller flag was actually an ensign, but I couldn't find an ensign with the Union Jack yet without the Cross of St. George. Well, I could, but they had either the 4 stars of New Zealand or the 6 stars of Australia. And if my research is correct, the White Ensign was for use in home waters. That said, I think this is a meeting of the combined forces, with the left flag that of the British Army force and the right flag that of the Royal Navy force.

Rabel said...

Here ya go.

Mumpsimus said...

Nice find, Rabel! Thanks.