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Vancouver Island (British Colony)

by Jaume Ollé - 1996-12-15

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Vancouver Island, a large island in the Pacific Ocean off Canada's west coast, was once a separate colony from British Columbia, which it is a part of now. Vancouver is the name of the third-largest city in Canada (largest in BC), and oddly enough it is not on Vancouver Island, but on the mainland.

The city was not founded until the late 1880s. The capital of BC, Victoria, a much smaller city than Vancouver, is on Vancouver Island. Confusing? You bet!
Dean Tiegs, 16 December 1996

Vancouver Island was a separate Crown Colony from 1849 until 1866 when it was united with the Colony of British Columbia. A Blue Ensign with the Vancouver Island badge in the fly, is depicted above.

It is very unlikely that this flag ever existed.

Although Vancouver was a Crown Colony, it was still administered by the Hudson Bay Company. Any government ships would surely have flown the Hudson Bay Company Ensign and not the Blue Ensign? Furthermore, even if there had been an inclination to fly the Blue Ensign, the time scale would have made it almost impossible. The Circular Dispatch promulgating defaced Blue Ensigns for colonial government vessels was dated 22nd December 1865; Vancouver, as a separate colony, ceased to exist after 6th August 1866.

Would anyone have bothered with a flag that was going to be out of date in just over seven months, even supposing they were aware of the new style flag in time? It took fiv