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Gibraltar (United Kingdom)

United Kingdom Dependent Territory, formerly Crown Colony of Gibraltar

by Zeljko Heimer

Description
Governor's Flag
Gibraltarian Ensigns
Coat-of-Arms and Badge
The Gibraltar Regiment Colours
Gibraltar UFE

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Flags of Convenience

Description

Gibraltar has a banner which shows the arms of the colony (white with a red stripe at the bottom with a three towered, two tiered red castle in the white section. Each tower has a door and a window and from the door of the middle tower hangs a gold key which mainly overlaps the red stripe) which is used a the colonies flag.

Graham Bartram, 27 September 1996

The Castle and Key and the "Montis Insignia Calpe" motto are one of the oldest battle honours in the British Army, and has figured as the badge of several regiments who defended Gibraltar during the sieges. The badge is borne on the Colours of several regiments.

Todd Mills, 27 September 1996

Gibraltar's official flag is the Union Flag, though a banner of the original Spanish arms of the colony granted in 1502 has been in use by citizens since 1966 (Crampton adds it was "regularized" in 1982). An unsubstantiated report I've read details that the British Government objects to a banner of Spanish arms over a British colony and has forbidden its use.

Steve Kramer, 27 September 1996

The City Flag is a banner of the arms, and the arms are the flag badge for both the Blue Ensign and now the Red Ensign. However, the arms today are different from what they were traditionally - a white castle and gold key on red. The City Flag, which was adopted in the '70s, is a red castle on white but with a red stripe along the bottom into which the gold key hangs. It is this design that appears now as the flag badge, so presumably the "regularisation" Crampton speaks of was changing the arms to match the flag.

I've just found a reference that confirms this: Ludvik Mucha (ed. William Crampton), The Orbis Encyclopedia of Flags and Arms, 1985, p55. A heraldic purist would say that a change of this magnitude represents a whole new set of arms. I wonder if the College of Arms were involved or if it was a local change?

Roy Stilling, 28 September 1996

What did cause a stink a little while ago was that the Gibraltarian mission to London was forbidden from flying the City Flag for fear of offending the Spanish. Gibraltar is self-governing, so I don't think there's anyway we could stop the Gibraltarians flying their flag within the colony short of dissolving their government and arresting the Chief Minister...

Roy Stilling, 28 September 1996

The arms of the a key suspended from a chain from a three-towered castle were granted to Gibraltar in December 1501 by Queen Isabella - Gibraltar was then Spanish territory. It can be seen frequently all over Gibraltar, not just in modern day flags, but in old plaques dating back centuries. Queen Isabella appropriated Gibraltar for Spain from the Spanish Duke of Medina Sidonia, on the basis that Gibraltar was of too great a strategic importance for it to lie in private hands. It is true that as a battle honour it figures strongly in the UK forces - Gibraltar has played a central role in the UK military for a very long time - and is most famously seen in the badge of the [Royal] Marines, who were formed in order to take Gibraltar in 1704.

Ken Ruiz, 19 January 1999

(Click on image to see full size detail)
by Dov Gutterman

Isn't the shape of the castle in my Gibraltaria a little different from Zeljko's image?

Dov Gutterman, 20 August 1999

Gibraltar has the same status as Bermuda, Falkland Islands etc. They used to be called Crown Colonies but are now UK Dependent Territories. Gibraltar was never a Dominion. That is an almost obsolete term that used to be used in general for independent countries in the Commonwealth that retained the British monarch as Head of State. I think that only Canada has retained that title as such. The Isle of Man has a different constitutional relationship with the UK and is known as a Crown Dependency.

David Prothero, 9 October 1999

Governor's Flag

by Tom Gregg

Armed with all the information that David Prothero provided, I've been making some pictures of defaced Union Jacks. Here's the first of them, that of Gibraltar's governor.

Tom Gregg, 29 April 1997

Gibraltarian Ensigns

Gibraltar does have a red ensign for ships registered in Gibraltar. The ensign has the arms of the colony in a shield centered on the fly half, with the motto "Montis Insignia Calpe" in black on a gold scroll beneath the arms. This flag was only introduced recently (this year?).

Graham Bartram, 27 September 1996

Does Gibraltar have its own Blue and Red Ensigns? I have a picture of a Blue Ensign with the shield of the colony's arms in the fly over a yellow scroll inscribed with the motto. Is it a real flag, and does it have a Red cousin?

Tom Gregg, 29 April 1997

Yes it is a real flag, it was adopted in 1875 by the Colonial Office. The red ensign is quite new, because it was adopted on the 19th of March 1996, with an Order in Council dated 14th of February 1996. Source: Flagmaster n°082, 1996 "Sorting out the colonies, New flags for old possessions", which gives information about Gibraltar, as well as on other British Dependencies.

Pascal Vagnat, 30 April 1997

The pattern Tom describes sounds more like that of the 1996 Red Ensign than the previous Blue Ensign, which if I recall correctly had the shield of arms in a standard white disc. Possibly they've decided to standardise the badges of the Blue and Red Ensigns.

Roy Stilling, 30 April 1997

Gibraltar does have a red ensign (see http://flags.mmcorp.com/GIBR.shtml [this server no longer exists - ed.]). You'll notice a colour difference between the red used for the city flag and that for the red ensign. As far as I know they just use Union Jack's red for the arms when they are displayed in the fly, and only use the more magenta shade for the stand-alone flag. Incidently this flag can be seen flying outside the Gibraltar Government Offices in the Strand, London. I suspect that there is a blue ensign version for use by Gibraltar Government vessels.

Graham Bartram, 30 April 1997

While checking Quid site that was informed by T.T.Le, I saw a strange flag for Gibraltar. Since I didn't heard about a new flag of Gibraltar, I wonder what is it (and why it is not in FOTW).

Dov Gutterman, 12 December 1998

This is the badge of the Gibraltar blue ensign, used by the Government of Gibraltar vessels. It should have a Union Flag in the canton, and a gold edge around the shield. It used to be the official flag of the colony (Gibraltar is the only remaing Crown Colony, all the others are Overseas Territories) until the Gibraltar government decided to use the city flag instead.

Graham Bartram, 12 December 1998

Coat-of-Arms and Badge

[Gibraltar's coat-of-arms was adopted] 10th July 1502 (Source: Colonial Office 1932, supplementary page, volume II). The year, and information that the grant was made by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Castile and Leon seems to be generally accepted, but I haven't seen the day and month quoted anywhere else.

David Prothero, 5 September 1999

I found this [old badge of Gibraltar] in Evans 1970.

Ole Andersen, 23 November 1999

from Evans 1970

The Gibraltar Regiment Colours

The following was posted on the Panorama Gibraltar's Newsweekly website on July 6th 1998:

New Colours

The Duke of Kent presented the new colours, on behalf of The Queen to The Gibraltar Regiment. The Presentation of new Colours took place during a parade at Devil's Tower Camp, the home of the Regiment, last Wednesday.

"We shall never be expelled by the enemy"

The Colours consists of two banners or flags, one known as The Queen's Colours and the other as The Regimental Colours, the former being the Union Flag and bears in the centre, within a gold circle the inscription The Gibraltar Regiment in gold and the Imperial Crown superimposed. It has two tassels and a suitable staff with a Crown on top.

The Regimental Colours bear the Red Cross of St. George on a field of limestone grey. In the centre, round a gold circle within has a wreath of Candytuft (Iberis Gibraltarica - a native flower of Gibraltar which is found in great profusion in the Upper Rock in late winter and spring) the inscription The Gibraltar Regiment with a circle. The Castle Key in red and white (Gibraltar Colours), the Imperial Crown superimposed, underneath a scroll with the Regimental motto Nulli Expugnabilis Hosti (We shall never be expelled by the enemy) and on the upper canton next to the staff a Grenade in gold to denote the link with The Royal Artillery. They measure three feet six inches long by three feet wide.

Phil Nelson, 17 July 1998

Phil Nelson quoted, "(...) The Queen's Colours (...) being the Union Flag and bears in the centre, within a gold circle the inscription The Gibraltar Regiment in gold and the Imperial Crown superimposed (...)". I have a hard time interpreting this: It seems to mean that the inscription is gold on gold?! And that the crown is over the inscription?! Or am I utterly wrong?

With the Regimental Colours it is even worse. From the recent discussions sparkled by the Sarawak flags I posted, I think understood that the golden circle is in the outer part of the wreath. However, I'm not sure how to interpret the "superimposed" word again, and I don't understand where the scroll is supposed to be. Finally, what would the shape of the grenade be?

Jorge Candeias, 4 November 1998

Jorge asks about the Queen's and Regimental Colour of the Gibraltar Regiment. The Gibraltar Regiment is part of the British Army proper, and its Colours conform to British Army regulations. I posted a series and some JPGs about this quite some time ago, but I don't think any of it made it to FOTW-ws. Take a look at the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) Colours at Mike Young's British Light Infantry Regiments website. This will give a very good idea of what the Gibraltar Colours look like.

For the Queen's Colour, in the DCLI example delete the gold battle honour scrolls on the horizontal bars of the St George Cross. Delete the numeral "II" in the center. Substitute "The Gibraltar Regiment" for "The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry" around the circumference of the circle. The Crown should have a "dropped center" as is common in all iconography since the accession of Elizabeth II. (The DCLI example dates from the 1920s.)

For the Regimental Colour, in the DCLI example delete the laurel wreath and battle honour scrolls which seem to pass under the St. George Cross. For the Union Wreath of roses, thistles and shamrocks substitute a Candytuft wreath of the same size (sorry, I can't help with a picture). Inside the circlet, again substitute "The Gibraltar Regiment". In the center substitute the numeral "II" with the Castle and Key. This presumably would be almost identical to the old colonial badge in the fly of the ensign. Delete the badge below the wreath and substitute a three part scroll with the words Nulli Expugnabilis Hosti in the three parts. The scroll probably extends slightly beyond the bar of the red cross and curls upwards following the contour of the wreath. The Crown again should have a dropped center. For the grenade, see the one depicted at The Grenadier Guards page. The flames of the grenade should not extend sideways beyond the edge of the ball, and be a bit more elongated vertically. The grenade should vertically fill about one half of the white canton, and be quite close to the corner. Good luck GIFing it!

T. F. Mills, 5 November 1998

Just to complete the information about the Gibraltar Regiment Colours. The stand of two Colours (Queen's and Regimental) was presented to the Gibraltar Regiment at their home base (Devil's Tower) on 1 July 1998 by the Duke of Kent on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. This was a replacement for the first stand of Colours presented 25 Sept. 1971 by then Governor Sir Varyl Begg. The regiment was formed in August 1958 by reorganising the Gibraltar Defence Force which had been formed in April 1939. Jorge, do you still plan to GIF the flags?

T.F. Mills, 14 November 1998

Gibraltar UFE

by Jorge Candeias

I have a photograph taken in Gibraltar with a lot of flags. These flags are white over red in a proportion of 1:2, like the flag of the colony, but, unlike this one, the castle is black and there is no key. I presumed it is the city flag. Am I right?

Jorge Candeias, 9 March 1998

No, the city flag is the "white over red with a red castle and gold keys" flag. This is also what the Gibraltarians consider their "national" flag. It is prefered over the blue ensign defaced with the arms, and flies outside the Gibraltar Government offices in London. I think this may just be a home-made flag.

Graham Bartram, 9 March 1998

I doubt it's home-made. This photo came out in some magazine, and I cutted it out in a time when I only cutted from the photographs the flags themselves (stupid of me) and not the whole photograph. So, I don't have the whole photo. But I have two pieces of it, each with one of these flags (very small), and I distinctly remember that there where a lot of flags, many hanging vertically from ropes streched across the street. All alike. This has to be industrially made.

Jorge Candeias, 9 March 1998

by Jorge Candeias

I scanned these two photograph items. I remember that the photo showed one street filled with these ropes stretched from one side to the other, where several such flags were hanging, alternating with other ropes with small triangular pennants, plain red or blue, or with UJs in them, as seen in the detail of the blue rectangle. If you compare the two flags, you can see that they are identical and correspond more or less to my drawing (though to be really accurate I should have made it vertically) and description: the castle is black allright, but, if you watch closely the detail, you see what could perhaps be a black key beneath the castle.

Now, this was obviously took during some local festivity. IMHO, the best explanation to these flags is that it's cheaper to produce flags with a black outline of the castle than those official flags with the red castle filled with black lines. In that case, I'd regard them as unofficial variations of the Gibraltar flag. My original thought was that this was the flag of the city as opposed to the flag of the colony (though the city and the colony occupy the same territory, it's not unheard of such differences - at least in Portugal they exist), but this seems to be more or less ruled out.

Jorge Candeias, 19 August 1999