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flag of the United Kingdom, the Union Jack, is a superposition of the
flags of Saint George (for England), Saint
Andrew (for Scotland) and Saint Patrick
(for Ireland). This superposition is quite intricate, and often drawn
incorrectly.
The flag is twice as wide as it is high. The cross of St George is
red, and has width equal to one fifth the flag's height, and a white
border of width one fifteenth the height.
The cross of St Andrew is interchanged with that of St Patrick. Start
by drawing the diagonals of the whole flag, and then the lines parallel
to these that are at a distance of one tenth and one fifteenth the
height of the flag. (For clarity the diagram also shows the lines that
are apart from the diagonals by only one-thirtieth the height.) On the
flag-pole side fill red the diagonally-orientated area of width one
fifteenth the height that lies below the diagonals, and on the
non-flag-pole side, the diagonally-orientated area of width one
fifteenth the height that lies above the diagonals. Finally, fill blue
everywhere that is both more than one-tenth the height away from the
diagonals, and more than one fifteenth the height away from the red of
the cross of St George.
The blue should be Pantone 280, approximated here with an RGB setting
of 0:0:102, and the red should be Pantone 186, approximated here with
204:0:0. (Thanks for drawing my attention to the
colours goes to Graham Bartram, who maintains a site with excellent
images of UK flags at www.flags.net/UNKG.htm.)
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The Union Jack is often drawn incorrectly. The ellipse on the
left shows a typical error, in which (wrongly) the cross of St
Patrick abuts at a right-angle to the white edge of the cross of
St George.
In the 2:1 version of the flag (which is what you want unless
you really know otherwise) the four red parts of the cross of St
Patrick should always be quadrilaterals. Two of the
quadrilaterals have two sides parallel and two perpendicular;
the other two have both pairs of non-adjacent sides parallel.
The four red parts of the cross of St Patrick should not be
pentagons or hexagons, although are often drawn that way.
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Areas. If the flag is drawn 60 by 30 as in the top
diagram, then the various parts have areas as follows, where s is
the positive square root of five. The red of the cross of St George is
of area 504 square units. The blue of the cross of St Andrew is in eight
pieces, four larger and four smaller. The larger pieces each have area
(335-75s)/2; the smaller each 445/4-30s; giving a total blue area of
1115-270s, which, at about 511.261646 square units, is slightly more
than 1.44% larger than the cross of St George. The red of St Patrick is
in four pieces, two larger and two smaller, these respectively each
having area 20s and 20s-5; for a total of 80s-10, about 168.8854382
square units. Thus the flag is red : white : blue in the proportions
494+80s : 191+190s : 1115-270s, or about 37.38% : 34.21% : 28.4%.
The author is
occasionally asked which of "Union Jack" and "Union
Flag" is the correct name. The Flag
Institute answers as follows:
It is often stated that the Union Flag should only
be described as the Union Jack when flown in the bows of a warship,
but this is a relatively recent idea. From early in its life the
Admiralty itself frequently referred to the flag as the Union Jack,
whatever its use, and in 1902 an Admiralty Circular announced that
Their Lordships had decided that either name could be used officially.
Such use was given Parliamentary approval in 1908 when it was stated
that "the Union Jack should be regarded as the National
flag".
However, the Royal
Navy disagrees:
The national flag of the United Kingdom is worn as
a Jack at the bow by all HM ships in commission when alongside or when
'dressed overall'. This is the only occasion when it is correctly
called the Union Jack, although it is generally known by this name
through common usage. It is also flown during Courts Martial and is
the Distinguishing Flag of an Admiral of the Fleet.
The author
enquired of the Royal Navy about this apparent disagreement, asking
which of the Flag Institute and the Royal Navy is right? The Naval
Historic Branch directly, of 3-5 Great Scotland Yard London SW1A 2HW,
answered as follows:
Both and neither. A jack is a sea flag, a small
flag, generally rather square in its proportions, flown from a
flagstaff rigged on the bowsprit or stem of the vessel. The earliest
known reference to a 'jack' of such a type occurs in 1633, the first
reference to the Union (rather than the 'Britain' or 'British' flag)
dating from 1625 - the Union Flag and the naval jack are much the same
age. The jack was initially simply a particular instance of the Union
Flag, but as the distinctive flag of warships it quickly became an
exceptionally well-known instance. Technically, all Union Jacks are
Union Flags, but not vice versa. It is a fine point and one that was
much argued over, but it is beyond question that the habit of treating
the two terms as interchangeable developed early, and it would not be
difficult to multiply instances of individuals who undoubtedly did
understand the distinction nevertheless following common usage and
using the term Union Jack when Union Flag is clearly meant.
The RN website is quite right in that the Union
Jack flown in the bows of commissioned ships is the only one which
really is a jack (unless you count the white-bordered pilot jack), but
not quite so on that being the only occasion when it is 'correctly' so
called - because the Flag Institute is right that the use of Union
Jack to mean any Union Flag has been sanctioned both by the Admiralty
and by Parliament. Equally, it is questionable to suggest that the
distinction between Union Jack and Union Flag is of particularly
recent origin - the Union Flag was also employed as a command flag,
and there was (and is!) a necessary differentiation to be made, so it
is possible that both websites could have chosen their words better,
but it would also be difficult to avoid questions like this arising
without going into quite inordinate detail.
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