The flag of Saint Helena consists of a Blue Ensign defaced with the

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of a ...

from the British overseas territory's coat of arms. Adopted in 1984 shortly after the island was granted a new coat of arms, it has been the flag since.

Saint Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

's flag is similar to the flags of eight other

British Overseas Territories The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...

, which are also Blue Ensigns with their respective coats of arms.

History

Saint Helena was first sighted by João da Nova in May 1502. The East India Company (EIC) was later conferred a royal charter to govern the island in 1659. It briefly came under Dutch sovereignty in 1673, before becoming a

crown colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...

for the duration of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's exile there from 1815 until his death in 1821. After reverting back to EIC control for thirteen years, it became a crown possession again in 1834. Flag of Saint Helena (1874–1985)

Saint Helena was accorded its own badge in 1874 that was eventually utilised on its flag. This consisted of a depiction of the territory's rocky coastline and an

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

. The badge was later redesigned in 1984, with the

Saint Helena plover The Saint Helena plover (''Charadrius sanctaehelenae''), locally known as the wirebird due to its thin legs, is a small wader endemic to the island of Saint Helena in the mid-Atlantic. The bird is similar in appearance to Kittlitz's plover and ...

added to the upper portion. Although this change was publicised in the island's government gazette in January of that year, authorisation was only granted by the Admiralty a decade later in 1994. The territory's flag was also utilised as the official flag of Tristan da Cunha, as well as on

Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory o ...

in an unofficial capacity. This continued until the two islands adopted their own distinct flags in 2002 and 2013, respectively. Minor updates were made to the shield (and, by extension, the flag of Saint Helena) in April 2019, amid concerns that the illustration of the wirebird had become misrepresented. The island's government consequently invited the College of Arms in London to create an up-to-date painting of the coat of arms that could digitally generated while remaining faithful to the colors prescribed in the 1984 Gazette. Two years later, the territory's flag was hoisted at New Palace Yard in the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

on 21 May 2021, a public holiday on the island that honours the feast day of Helena of Constantinople. It was part of an effort by Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons at the time, to observe the ceremonial days of overseas territories.

Design

Symbolism

The colours and symbols of the flag carry cultural, political, and regional meanings. The bird on the yellow field is a Saint Helena plover that epitomises the fauna of the territory. Popularly referred to by Saint Helenians as the wirebird, it is the last species of bird that is endemic to the island, and is the official bird of Saint Helena. The Cross of Saint George flown from the three-masted sailing ship is a conspicuous symbol of the Kingdom of England, Saint Helena's mother country.

Similarities

The Blue Ensign is also used on the flags of eight of the thirteen other

, with their coats of arms in the

fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

being the lone distinguishing feature between them. These are, specifically, the flags of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

, the Falkland Islands,

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

, the

Pitcairn Islands The Pitcairn Islands (; Pitkern: '), officially the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four isl ...

, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Variants

The standard of the territory's governor features the Union Jack defaced with the territorial coat of arms at the centre. Ships registered in Saint Helena fly the Red Ensign, since there is no defaced variant for the island.

References

Specific Bibliography * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Helena, Flag Of

Flag of Saint Helena The flag of Saint Helena consists of a Blue Ensign defaced with the shield from the British overseas territory's coat of arms. Adopted in 1984 shortly after the island was granted a new coat of arms, it has been the flag since. Saint Helena' ...

Flags introduced in 1984

Flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...