Royal Air Force flag: timeline for introduction

Last modified: 2005-03-12 by rob raeside
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Detailed timeline for adoption of RAF flag

The sequence of events went something like this:

• 11th May 1918. The Director of Air Quartermaster Services wrote to the Director of Naval Stores asking whether there was any objection on the part of the Naval Authorities to the Royal Air Force flying flags of one of two designs :--
  (1) The ordinary Naval White Ensign omitting the St George's Cross ;
  (2) The ordinary Blue Ensign with the colour pale Air Force Blue instead of Navy Blue.
   
• 24th May 1918. The War Office wrote to the Air Ministry that they had no objection to either or both flags.
   
• 10 June 1918. The Admiralty informed the Air Ministry that the use of the Ensigns, with or without modifications, was to be deprecated, and suggested that, subject to the King's approval, the Union Flag with some appropriate added device might be found suitable for use as the Flag of the Royal Air Force.
   
• 30th July 1918. Lord Weir, Secretary of State for Air replied that he would certainly not press the request for the use of the White Ensign, as the Royal Air Force flag, any further. The Naval Secretary, Sir Allan Everett, was instructed by the First Lord to associate himself with Sir Godfrey Paine in bringing out a design that would be acceptable to the Air Ministry without being objectionable to the Navy.
  New proposals:
  A. RAF pilot's wings on an oval in the centre of a white-bordered Union Jack.
  B. Same, but wings replaced by an eagle on a blue circle surrounded by white garter, ensigned by crown. Same as the badge 1st April on http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/british_military/1918.html
   
• 16th August 1918. Comments in Admiralty Memo that the new proposal looked like the King's Harbour Master's flag, and without the badge, like letter D in the Naval Code (white-bordered Union Jack), also known as the Pilot flag. "KHM flag is not much used, and could be changed. Abolition of the Pilot Jack, a flag hard to distinguish and expensive to make, would be welcomed."
   
• 27th August 1918. Air Council indicated that they wanted the white bordered Union Flag without any defacement. The Board of Trade would not agree to this, so the Air Council return to the original White Ensign proposal, which was still opposed by the Admiralty.
   
• 30th September 1918. Air Ministry told the Admiralty that they proposed submitting their request to HM the King for his approval.
   
• 12th October 1918. Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Tothill, 4th Sea Lord, and Lord Wester Wemyss, 1st Sea Lord, were entirely opposed the use of the White Ensign, defaced or otherwise, and the Air Ministry were informed that the Admiralty were unable to assent.
   
• 25th October 1918. Air Ministry investigated the legal position. In the opinion of the Treasury Solicitor it was not a legal question. Except for use on ships, the only offence would be if the RAF flag contravened Defence of Realm Regulation 25c. [This, I understand, was a regulation in force only in war time.]
   
• 23rd December 1918. The King asked for the matter to be referre