British Antarctic Territory

British Antarctic Territory (BAT)  is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, and one of the eight official claims to territory on the continent. The flag of BAT on land is a white ensign with the territories coat of arms in the fly:

Apparently this flag is used by the British Antarctic Survey who operate from bases in the territory and other nearby UK territories, as well as from the survey's headquarters in the United Kingdom. From what pictures I have seen the survey seem to prefare the Union Flag rather than the BAT flag. Both painted on bases and as a physical flag:

Perhaps this is because the flag is impracticable, the fact the complete coat of arms is used seems strange. My redesign of the flag is quite different:

 As flags are designed to be seen the use of white in a very white place seems strange, so a light blue is perhaps a better colour to use, as it still reflects on the climate but won't be completely invisible. The use of a symbol symbol like a snow flake is also a much more practical symbol than a coat of arms.
I have also designed flags for some of the regions of the territory mainly the islands and Ellsworth Land and Queen Elizabeth Land on the mainland:

Alexander Island

Adelaide Island

Signy Island

Ellsworth land

Queen Elizabeth Land

Queen Elizabeth land was named after the Queen to celebrate the diamond Jubilee, hence the diamond pattern on the flag and inclusion of the crown.

Ships of and working for the British Antarctic Survey fly a blue ensign with the BAT arms in the fly:

My re design

The snow flake could also be used as the roundel on survey aircraft rather than the map logo

or

Please feel free to comment

St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

Since 2009 this British overseas territory has officially had 3 equal parts: St Helena, Ascension, and Tristan Da Cunha.  StHelena and Tristan have flags, and Ascension's proposal will no doubt be officially approved eventually.
When the territory was St Helena and dependencies, one could take the St Helena flag as the flag, but now all parts are equal, the territory as a whole seems to lack a flag. 

First I thought of using part of the individual coat of arms for each island on the arms for the new flag. The bird is for Saint Helena, the tortoise for Ascension Island and the blue and white diamond for Tristan da Cunha. The three stars are for the three islands:

The proposal from my friend Leonardo Piccioni is below:

Proposal by Leonardo Piccioni

The Portuguese ship represents the fact that the Saint Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Ascension were all discovered in name of Portuguese crown. The Latin cross represent the fact that St. Helen of Constantinople is referred as who discovered the "True Cross", the cross where Christ was crucified. It's red in a reference to English flag.

I like the idea of the Portuguese cross so I added it to the chief of the arms on the next proposal.

I used sea shells to represent the individual islands, because I wanted something more creative than stars. Ships are evident on the arms of all three islands and Leonardo's design, so the islands clearly have large maritime links and a relationship with the sea. I thought an anchor would be a better way to demonstrate this from a heraldry point of view. It also represents hope or steadfastness. The colours of red, white, blue, green and gold comes from the individual arms of the islands: 

I also had ago at a complete set of arms. The crest has the ship of the Ascension crest and the naval crown of Tristan da Cunha. The supporters are from Tristan da Cunha and Ascension coat of arms. The motto "Our Faith makes us Unshakable" is original but has element of the Tristan da Cunha (Our Faith) and St Helena (Unshakable) mottoes:

All Comments welcome:

All designs are by me unless stated otherwise.

Queen Elizabeth Land

After the Foreign and Commonwealth Office announcing it was going to name a large area (437,000 sq km) of British Antarctic Territory after HM the Queen, to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee I thought it would be a good opportunity to think of a flag and arms for this new territory (or region if it is not going to be counted as a different territory from Antarctic territory.)
First lets look at the flag of BAT:

 

It is unusual as it is a white ensign, the only other use of a (UK) white ensign outside Queen's Ships (by which I mean Royal Navy, Royal Yacht Squadron and ships escorting the monarch) is BAT and  the Commissioner's flag of the Northern Lighthouse Board.

Like most UK overseas territories flags its and ensign defaced with the territories coat of arms.
This flag is the official flag of the territory however I am unsure if it is actually used.

The UK presence in Antarctic composes of the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship HMS Protector. (which can be deployed far and wide in the south) which uses the St Georges ensign more commonly called the white ensign, and three research stations of the British Antarctic Survey. I have seen pictures of a BAS station but it was only flying a Union Flag rather than the BAT flag.

However BAS ships do use a blue ensign defaced with the BAT shield:

  

I based the arms of Queen Elizabeth Land (or Liz Land as I like to call it) on the BAT arms:

The Helmet, supporters and base are the same. What has changed is the crest is now a crown, the motto is Latin for 'Duty and Devotion,' which is not only a good motto but a tribute to the Queen. 

The shield has also changed a little. the Torch has been replaced with the Queen's coat of arms defaced with the crowned 'E' as a permanent tribute. The Diamond is self explanatory. 

The Flag is a separate, more difficult issue. Do I  break from the tradition of using ensigns or more unique flag? 

My first design is really a copy of the BAT flag.

The Government ensign is the same but blue.

My next design breaks from the ensign tradition:

It keeps the diamond and waves design, and crowned 'E' logo. I also kept the Union Jack as Antartica is so fast and as there is nothing there but snow, and so many countries have claims and territory there, it would still be useful to let people know what boarder they have crossed. (although I don't think too many people will be out for a walk.) 

Alternatively you could replace the Union Jack with the defaced Royal Arms from the Coat of Arms:

The chances are this place will continue to use the BAT flag rather than adopt one but a bit of fun anyway.

I also recommend looking at my friend Leonardo Piccioni's idea as I think it is much better than mine the link is here.

All Comments Welcome

British Antarctic Territory and Survey flags are from Wikipeadia, all other picture are by Samuel McKittrick

Falkland Islands Flag

It has been announced this week that Falkland Islanders will hold a referendum on their "political status" which currently is a self governing British Overseas Territory. While it is expected that nearly everyone will vote to keep British sovereignty I think now is a good time for a what if scenario. What if the islands became an independent country in the Commonwealth of Nations. What would their flag be? or what if the United Kingdom trying to find some middle ground with Argentine ports(which refused access to vessels flying the Falklands flag) decided to change the flag to a non ensign based design in a similar way the Gibraltar flag is no longer based on an ensign. Now I believe the people should determine their own future this is in no way political its only a 'what if' or alternative reality for fun.

Now the current flag of the Falkland Islands approved by the Ministry of Defence and used by the Islands Government is this:

                              

It is a British Blue ensign defaced with the Islands coat of arms. A red ensign version of is used on Civil Ships registered in the islands. 

Now if the islands did become independent I think it is more than likely they would continue to used this flag. Same way Fiji and the cook islands kept their flags. But if they decided to change to a new flag or again alternatively if they change to a different flag like Gibraltar I propose a design featuring the coat of Arms on an uneven Blue and White striped field. 

    Here the shield is off centre towards the hoist which is very common on flags and is my personal favourite
     

                              The shield is centred which to be honest I don't think works as well

                                         The shield is less prominent and placed in the canton 

Now if the islands go independent the elected leader the chief executive would become the national leader and like any nation would deserve a personal flag:

A relatively simple flag an equal blue and white field with the island coat of arms in the centre. Assuming that they stay in the Commonwealth they would likely keep the Queen as head of state and therefore keep a governor or representative of the Queen. The current governor's flag is the standard design with governors of all UK territories. A union flag defaced with a wreath and the territories coat of arms: 

                               

My designs for a new post independence governor's or Royal representative flag are:

              The islands coat of arms on a plain blue field topped with Royal crown and the Queens initials

The other version is based on the flag of the Chief Executive but the coat of arms is flanked by the Royal Cypher 

What about the flag of the armed forces? Apart from the UK military personnel who regularly are deployed there is a small territorial unit of local volunteers in the Falkland Islands Defence Force(FIDF), which is funded and equipped by the local government. I have been unable to find out if they have a flag and if so what it looks like but they do have a unique cap badge. So I based a possible flag on that:

 It clearly has the badge in the centre on the a field that resembles the badge and the colours of sea, air and land forces behind them. This unit operates on all 3 fields and so would do more so if independence was given. Which leads on to what symbols would be used on the water and in the air? The naval section FIDF I think would fly their own ensign on patrol craft:

These are the Naval section flags for used at sea in ensign form only hence the crowned anchor. It appears I am not the only one thinking what if? As I have come across these aircraft roundels on the internet(not my design):

All just a what if situation for fun. I certainly enjoyed making these designs.