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

New Zealand Royal and Vice Regal Flags

Personal Flag of HM The Queen of New Zealand
Governor-General
Lieutenant-Governor (before 1841)
Governor (1869-1874)
Governor (1874-1908)
Governor (1908-1936)

See also:

Personal Flag of HM The Queen of New Zealand

by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 9 May 2001

The Queen's Personal Flag for New Zealand symbolises the fact that Queen Elizabeth II is The Queen of New Zealand. Adopted in 1962, it is flown only by Her Majesty when in this country. The Flag is the shield design of the New Zealand Coat of Arms in the form of an oblong or square. Superimposed in the centre is a dark blue roundel bearing a Roman "E" surmounted by a Royal Crown within a garland of roses all in gold. The central device is from The Queen's Personal Flag which is frequently used by Her Majesty in relation to Her position as head of the Commonwealth.
Rob Raeside, 7 March 2002, quoting from New Zealand’s Government flag page

Governor-General

1:2
by Željko Heimer, crest image by Graham Bartram, 17 March 2001

Blue flags with the royal crest [a lion standing on a crown] and scroll(s) were introduced for Governor-Generals in the 1930s. It is usually said that they were intended to show that, following the Balfour Declaration of 1926, Governor-Generals no longer represented the British Government, but had become representatives of the British monarch. However it is possible that this was not the original reason for introducing the flags.

The haphazard way in which the flags were introduced does support the idea that, although they did come to symbolise the new constitutional relationship between Britain and the Dominions, this was not their original purpose. Had it been, all four flags would surely have been introduced at the same time ? Perhaps on the 1st January 1932, after the British Parliament had given the Balfour Declaration legal standing by enacting the Statute of Westminster on 12th December 1931. Instead, the flag was already in use in South Africa (January 1931) and Canada (April 1931), but was not used in New Zealand until April 1935. The Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, had refused to fly the flag, and it remained in store until he was succeeded by Lord Galway. In Australia the Prime Minister,