Flag of Turks and Caicos Islands (27345806815)

The current flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands was adopted on 7 November 1968, and modified in 1999. Prior to this, the islands had several different flags either proposed or utilised. Nevertheless, the

Turks and Caicos Islands The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and n ...

did not form a separate colony for the vast majority of this time. Instead, the islands were a dependency of Jamaica until 1959. In 1959, the islands became a separate colony but until 1962 and the

independence of Jamaica The Colony of Jamaica gained independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. In Jamaica, this date is celebrated as Independence Day, a national holiday. The island became an imperial colony in 1509 when Spain conquered the Indigenous A ...

, the

Governor of Jamaica This is a list of viceroys in Jamaica from its initial occupation by Spain in 1509, to its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. For a list of viceroys after independence, see Governor-General of Jamaica. For context, see History of Jamai ...

remained the

Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands The Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands is the representative of the British monarch in the United Kingdom's British Overseas Territory of Turks and Caicos Islands. The Governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British g ...

. Between 1962 and 1965 the Administrator of the Turks and Caicos Islands reported directly to London and then between 1965 and 1973, the administrator was subordinate to the

Governor of the Bahamas This is a list of governors of the Bahamas. The first English settlement in the Bahamas was on Eleuthera. In 1670, the king granted the Bahamas to the lords proprietors of the Province of Carolina, but the islands were left to themselves. The loc ...

, who was also Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands. In 1973, when

The Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

became independent, the position of administrator became governor.

Description

The flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands features a

blue ensign The Blue Ensign is a flag, one of several British ensigns, used by certain organisations or territories associated or formerly associated with the United Kingdom. It is used either plain or Defacement (flag), defaced with a Heraldic badge, ...

with the

Union flag The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

in the canton, defaced with the

coat of arms of the Turks and Caicos Islands The coat of arms of the Turks and Caicos Islands consists of a gold-coloured escutcheon (shield) charged with a conch shell, lobster and a cactus, supported by two flamingos, and topped with a pelican in the crest. Adopted three years afte ...

in the centre-right. The coat of arms, which was granted on 28 September 1965, takes the shape of a yellow shield which contains a

queen conch ''Aliger gigas,'' originally known as ''Strombus gigas'' or more recently as ''Lobatus gigas'', commonly known as the queen conch, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family of true conches, the Strombidae. Th ...

shell,

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

, and a ''

Melocactus ''Melocactus'' (melon cactus), also known as the Turk's cap cactus, is a genus of cactus with about 30–40 species. They are native to the Caribbean, western Mexico through Central America to northern South America, with some species along the A ...

''. The Melocactus, which is visually similar to the traditional Turkish

fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

, give the islands the first half of their name. Whether the lobster on the coat of arms should have eight or ten legs has been disputed. It has been suggested that the original version of the flag showed ten legs, as would be accurate due to the decapod nature of lobsters, and that the first pair of smaller legs were hidden under the antennae and were subsequently missed in later drawings. It is thought that the lobster present on the coat of arms is a

Caribbean spiny lobster The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

(''panulirus argus''), which does indeed have ten legs. The current flag was modified in 1999 when a white outline was added to the shield and the badge height was increased to approximately half of the hoist width.

Related flags

Civil ensign

A red ensign with the shield to the centre-right is used as

civil ensign A civil ensign is an ensign (maritime flag) used by civilian vessels to denote their nationality. It can be the same or different from the state ensign and the naval ensign (or war ensign). It is also known as the merchant ensign or merchant flag. ...

(seen below), although this has not yet been approved by

Order in Council An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' Ki ...

laid before Parliament.

Gubernatorial flag

The

has a separate flag (also seen below), a Union flag defaced with the coat of arms surrounded by a garland tied together with a blue ribbon. This design is similar to flags of the other Governors in British overseas territories. The current governor, since July 2019 is

Nigel Dakin Nigel John Dakin (born 28 February 1964) is a British diplomat currently serving as Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands. He assumed office on 15 July 2019 in a swearing-in ceremony before the territory's House of Assembly. On 15 December 2 ...

Historical flags

Flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands (1889–1968)

The previous flag used up to 1968 was also a defaced blue ensign. This flag had been in use since 1875 and had a different coat of arms to the current flag. The former coat of arms (which can be seen on the former flag below) featured a ship offshore from a beach with the name of the islands in a circle. It also showed a man working on the beach between two piles of salt. This is in reference to the salt industry which once dominated the

economy of the Turks and Caicos Islands The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and no ...

. The 1889 Admiralty Flag Book introduced some shading into the left-hand salt pile and what appears to be a door into the right-hand salt pile. This led to confusion of what the salt piles really were, with an

igloo An igloo (Inuit languages: , Inuktitut syllabics (plural: )), also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow. Although igloos are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only b ...

even being suggested. The corresponding gubernatorial flag was a Union flag defaced by the former coat of arms in the centre. In 1870, an alternative to this had been proposed, which retained the Union flag but which was defaced with a white crescent and three stars against a blue background. The crescent would be emblematic of the name of the islands (Turks, referring to the flag of what was then the

Safavid Empire Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

) and the three stars would refer to Grand Turk, Salt Cay and the Caicos Group. This alternative was proposed by Melfort Campbell, who was the Council President of the islands from 1869 to 1872 as a simplification, due to the difficulty and expense of emblazoning the coat of arms of the Turks and Caicos Islands onto a Union flag. This flag, however, was rejected because it did not comply with the

of 7 August 1869, which required the coat of arms of the territory to be present on the flag.

List of flags

Territory flag

Governor's Flag

Ensigns

Historical

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turks And Caicos Islands, Flag of the

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 ...

National flags Blue Ensigns Flags of British Overseas Territories

Turks and Caicos The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and nor ...