The Union Flag
The Union Flag is flown upside down by accident more often than you'd think, and there's a right way up hidden in its wonky white stripes.
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Quick Facts
- Official name
- The Union Flag, commonly called the Union Jack
- Created
- 1606 (first version); current design since 1 January 1801
- Made from
- The crosses of St George (England), St Andrew (Scotland) and St Patrick (Ireland)
- Proportions
- Usually 1:2, though the Flag Institute notes a 3:5 ratio is also widely used
- Wales
- Not represented, as Wales was already united with England by law when the first flag was designed
- Right way up
- The broader white stripe of St Andrew's cross sits above the red diagonal on the side nearest the flagpole
- Official status
- The national flag by convention rather than by Act of Parliament; in 1908 a government statement in the House of Lords affirmed it should be regarded as the national flag and could be flown on land
- Nickname origin
- 'Jack' likely comes from the small flag flown on a ship's bowsprit
The flag with a right way up
Look closely at the Union Flag and you'll notice it isn't symmetrical. The white stripe beside the red diagonal sits on one side of each quarter, and that's deliberate. In the quarter nearest the flagpole, the broad white stripe should be at the top. Flip it and you've got the flag upside down, which traditionally signals distress. It has happened on official occasions, to the embarrassment of everyone involved. The oddity comes from heraldry. Scotland's white diagonal cross and Ireland's red diagonal cross are 'counterchanged', meaning the positions of the red and white diagonals alternate between quarters. St Patrick's red saltire also has a narrow white edging. Scotland gets the place of honour at the top by the pole.
Two crowns, one king, one new flag
The story starts in 1603, when Elizabeth I died and James VI of Scotland also became James I of England. He now ruled two kingdoms that kept separate parliaments, but he liked the idea of a single banner. In 1606 he ordered a flag combining the red cross of St George on white with the white saltire of St Andrew on blue. It was first meant for ships at sea, where confusion between English and Scottish vessels caused squabbles. Many people at the time were unimpressed. Some Scots grumbled that the English cross sat over their saltire, and each side produced its own variants of the design for years.
Why there's no Welsh dragon
Wales isn't missing because anyone forgot it. When the first Union Flag appeared, Wales had been legally joined to England through the Laws in Wales Acts of the 1530s and 1540s under Henry VIII, so it was treated as part of the Kingdom of England rather than a separate crown. The flag combined two kingdoms, and Wales was counted in the English one. St George's cross stood for both. There's another practical wrinkle. The red dragon of Wales sits on a green and white field, and the Welsh flag in its present form was only made official in 1959. Adding it to the Union Flag would mean redesigning the whole thing, and every few years someone suggests it, from campaigners to politicians, without anything changing.
Enter St Patrick
The flag we know today dates from the Act of Union that brought Great Britain and Ireland together, taking effect on 1 January 1801. A red saltire was added in the name of St Patrick. In practice the red diagonal cross was borrowed from the arms of the Fitzgerald family, and it has never really been a national flag of Ireland in the way the saltire is for Scotland. It was a design choice for a new union. Most of Ireland left the United Kingdom in 1922, but the flag didn't change. Northern Ireland remained in the UK, and the red saltire stayed.
Jack or flag?
Is it the Union Jack or the Union Flag? Both are fine. A popular claim says 'Jack' is only correct on a ship, but the Admiralty said in 1902 that either name was acceptable, and Parliament has used 'Union Jack' too. The word 'jack' probably comes from the small flag flown from a ship's bow. The Royal Navy still flies the Union Flag as a jack on its warships in harbour. On land, UK government guidance since 2021 has called for the Union Flag to be flown every day on UK government buildings, replacing the older designated-days approach.
Four nations, four flags
The Union Flag sits alongside separate national flags. England uses St George's cross, Scotland the blue Saltire, and Wales the Red Dragon. Northern Ireland has no flag that's agreed across the community, and the Union Flag is used by many people there, while the Ulster Banner, a red cross on a white field with a crowned white six-pointed star containing a red hand, was used by the old Northern Ireland government and remains a symbol for some. At the Commonwealth Games, each nation competes under its own flag. At the Olympics, Team GB uses the Union Flag. The flag also lives on abroad. Canadian provinces, Australian states and several territories carry its design in the corner of their flags, a sign of how far its reach once extended.
Notable people
- James VI and I
- Henry VIII
- Elizabeth I
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