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Coastguard (Britain)

Last modified: 2005-07-23 by rob raeside
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[Coastguard ensign] by Martin Grieve

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Description of the flag

HM Coastguard Ensign

On page 59 of Graham Bartram's book, "British Flags & Emblems", the present-day version of HM Coastguard Ensign, which was introduced in 1999 is shown. In the same publication, on page 19, the same flag is illustrated flying from a gaff on land. This Ensign has a great  many differences from the former version, which was first hoisted in 1973/1974, and a list of these are:

  1. The Edwardian crown is now "floated" above the badge, and this crown has the interior of its base coloured light grey instead of red.
  2. The rope lettering "CG' are no longer entangled, but now the G is placed directly on top of C. Furthermore, these letters are now more condensed.
  3. The castellated pattern arrayed around the octagonal-shaped badge is now coloured in green instead of Navy blue(?).
  4. The red fimbriations around the outer and inner edges of the octagon are now thinner, but are retained.
  5. The overall badge height/hoist width ratio has been increased.

The new version dates from Change No. 5, Page 5-159 (the 1999 revisions) to the 1989 Edition of BR20, and the same illustration is repeated in the current edition.
Christopher Southworth, 26 June 2005

On The Isle of Barra Coastguard website http://www.isleofbarra.com/coastguard.html the badge of the Coastguard i