^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

British Antarctic Territory

by Jaume Ollé
Flag adopted April 1998.

New flag
State ensign
Coat of arms
History
Commissioner's flag
British Antarctic Survey

New flag

The flag for use on land is a white ensign (without cross) with the arms of the territory, quite large, in the fly. The flag is for flying at British Antarctic bases (which previously flew the British flag) and at the British Antarctic Survey headquarters in Cambridge, England. I have also suggested that it be flown at the Discovery Centre in Dundee, where the RRS Discovery is moored, next to an Antarctic exploration museum. The RRS Discovery was the ship that first carried Captain Scott to the pole in 1901 and on further expeditions. She is the ship that forms the crest of the arms of the British Antarctic Territory.

Graham Bartram, 31 October and 1 November 1998

Roman Klimes' paper 'Symbols of Antarctica', published in [icv97], pp. 232-237, gives the official description of the coat of arms of the British Antarctic Territory:

On 11 March 1952, the Falkland Island Dependencies (constituted in 1908, divided in 1963 into British Antarctic Territory and South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands) were granted arms by Royal Warrant:
Arms: Per fess wavy barry, wavy of six Argent and Azure, and Argent on a Pile Gules, a Torch enflamed proper.
Supporters: In Dexter a Lion Or and in Sinister an Emperor Penguin proper upon a compartment divided per pale and representing in Dexter a grassy Mount and in Sinister an ice Floe.
Motto: Research and Discovery.
This coat of arms was transferred to the B.A.T. on 1 August 1963, with the addition of helm, crest and mantling:
Mantling: in Dexter Or doubled Gules and in Sinister Argent doubled Azure. Crest: Upon a Wreath of the colours of the Mantling a representation of the research Ship Discovery.

The Blue Ensign with the arms of the B.A.T. in the fly was introduced by Royal Warrant on 30 May 1969.

Ivan Sache, 2 May 2001

State ensign

by Mark Sensen

The blue ensign is still in use. I know this as I am a consultant to the Foreign Office Polar Regions Section. The blue ensign with shield remains the government ensign of the British Antarctic Territory and is therefore flown by vessels undertaking work on behalf of the British Antarctic Territory authorities, which includes those vessels working for/with the British Antarctic Survey.

The new white ensign is not intended for use at sea, but lacking a civil ensign (there is a strange lack of civil vessels registered in British Antarctic Territor