Historic Flags of Newfoundland (Canada)

This comes from a book of water-colour sketches made in 1862, and called 'Corrected Code of Merchant's Signals'. It is on a page headed 'National Flags' and captioned 'Government House, St John's.'

A Union Jack would have been the usual flag to fly on Government House, but there are one or two references to distinguishing flags for colonial governors in the 1860's, before the introduction of defaced Union Jacks in 1870.

In a dispatch dated 20 April 1870 the Governor of New South Wales wrote to the Colonial Office that he would discontinue use of a "Governor's Flag" which was described as, a St. George's Cross with crown in the centre on a white ground. One might assume that it would have been a Royal Crown rather than the antique crown drawn on the St John's flag. The latter may have been just a stylized crown and not an accurate depiction of the appearance of the crown on the flag.

The Governor of British Columbia, wrote to the Colonial