Last modified: 2023-06-03 by zachary harden
Keywords: british north borneo | governor | canton (union flag) | blue ensign | red ensign | union flag | lion (red) | disc (yellow |
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Governor's Yellow Flag. Company red lion badge on a yellow flag with a dark yellow border. I assume that it was the land equivalent of the defaced Union Flag that was only used afloat. "The flag for the Governor of Sabah not resembling in any way any flag in use in Her Majesty's Navy, My Lords have no objection to its being adopted as proposed." 5th January 1882.
23rd March 1923. In answer to an enquiry the Company Secretary wrote:
"Pale yellow flag is old flag of Governor of Sabah. Is no longer used. 'Governor of Sabah' was term originally used when territory first acquired from Sultans of Brunei and Sulu. Term long since fallen into disuse. Now designated "Governor and Commander in Chief, North Borneo."Answering a further enquiry on 16th August 1928 the Secretary replied that:
"the pale yellow flag has not been in use for a great many years."(...) Compiled from Public Record Office documents, ADM 1/21259, ADM 1/24010, ADM 116/213, ADM 116/300, ADM 116/898B, CO 874/204 and CO 874/778.
According to Flaggenbuch
1939, the Governor's flag was also the national
flag of the territory known as (British) North Borneo (Company).
Flaggenbuch
1939 adds (Priv.) — does this
mean that the territory was a private property of the British North
Borneo Company?
Ivan Sache, 2 January 2001
From: Cumberland Clark, The crown colonies and their history, London, 1939:
In 1938 the British North Borneo Company still continued to exercise its administrative powers. It did so under North Borneo's own flag, which consists of the Union Jack, with the Borneo badge —that is, a red lion on a yellow ground— in the centre.
Jarig Bakker, 2 January 2001
The governor was appointed by the Court of Directors and not
by the Crown, so the badge on
the Union Flag did not have the usual garland of laurel leaves. (...)
In the Admiralty
Flag Book 1889 the lion faces the fly but is
changed to face the hoist in a 1902 amendment. I think that this was
probably to correct an error in the book and not a change in the design
of the flag.
David Prothero, 4 January 2001
The original Brunei Royal flag was plain yellow and the basic flag of Sulu was plain red. Those colors may have inspired the very distinctive flag flown by the governor of Sabah at the time British authority was first established in the area, a design featured in its 1882-1948 and 1948-1963 coats of arms as well as the flag badge derived from the latter. The gubernatorial flag in question was yellow with a red lion in the center(1);this may have been conceived as a combination of the Brunei royal color and the lion of England. It is described as the flag of the governor of Sabah, although as the Principal Representative of the British North Borneo(Chartered) Company he was also entitled to fly the Union Jack and the British Blue Ensign at sea, each emblazoned with the company badge - a yellow disk with a red lion.(2) It may be surmised that the yellow flag with the lion was used only on land, where it presumably flew over the governor's residence. Further research, however, might indicate that more generally it was considered the flag of the Company - which had sovereign jurisdiction over North Borneo - and that it was thus a surrogate state flag until replaced by the Union Jack.(3) The flag seems to have been abolished, since an amendment from c1927 to "Flags of all Nations" dealing with North Borneo does not mention it and and it is not illustrated in the 1930 edition of the book. Nevertheless the symbol in that flag, the red lion on yellow(4), continued to be prominent until the end of the British colonial regime in North Borneo. As a badge it appeared on the Blue Ensign for use by government armed and unarmed vessels; moreover it was one of the few colonial badges allowed to be used on the Red Ensign. Local chiefs, both afloat and ashore, displayed the badge in the center of a blue flag.
Notes:
(1)The original illustration of the flag and the revised illustration
of 1903, appearing respectively on plate 7 and the amendment sheet to
that plate in the Admiralty's 1889 edition of "Flags of all
Nations", both show a very narrow border around the four
edges of the field. The background of the flag in both cases is
a pale yellow and the border is a very dark golden yellow or
ochre. This border is omitted from the flag badges of
that era and 1948-1963, as well as from the representations of the flag
appearing in the colonial era coats of arms of North Borneo. It may be
speculated that this border was derived from
the light orange shading included in the artistic rendition of the arms
of 1882-1948, where the chief of the shield bears the flag design -
i.e. a red lion on yellow. Since it was the
practice of flag makers as well as Heralds in the late 19th
century in Britain to embellish arms and flags with highlights and
shadings in situations which today would be rendered with a solid
color, it is quite possible that this border, although armorially
non-existent, appeared on actual flags, particularly if the Admiralty's
artwork was used as a basis for their manufacture. It
does appear in publications showing this flag, such as The 1926
"Flaggenbuch" published by the State War Ministry of Germany
(p. 43) and in the October 1917 "National
Geographic Magazine" (p. 363).
(2)The latter flew on his yacht as an ensign, while the former was
hoisted as a rank flag on any other vessel he visited. In the Union
Jack version the usual laurel wreath surrounding the central badge was
omitted, presumably to indicate the fact that he
did not - unlike colonial governors and others entitled to a flag of
similar design - hold his title directly from the crown (although the
Secretary of State for colonies did have to approve
his appointment). The earliest editions of the Admiralty's "Flags of
all Nations" do not indicate one way or the other whether the wreath is
to be included; an amendment to the 1915
edition specifically states that the badge is to be used without the
garland and it is possible that it had been hitherto permitted. It is
indeed shown with the wreath in the 1917 "National
Geographic Magazine". According to V. Wheeler-Holohan (A Manual of
Flags [London : Warne, 1933], p.67) this flag was known as the "Sabah
Jack"; indeed one of its official uses was
as a jack for vessels of the British North Borneo Company.
(3)The charter of the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company, based
on grants by the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu, was dated 1 November 1881;
a British Protectorate was extended over the territory on 12 May 1888.
Nevertheless the usage ot
the Union Jack may in practice have been indistinguishable under
different constitutional arrangements.
(4)In the blazon of the 1882 arms the chief of the shield is described
as "Or thereon a Lion passant guardant Gules" and the flag in the crest
is described as "Or charged with a Lion guardant Gules". Nevertheless
there were two distinct versions of this
design represented in "Flags of all Nations", each being used
in the
flag of the governor of Sabah and as a badge for use on the Union Jack,
Red Ensign and Blue Ensign. The earlier form (established on 5 January
1882) shows the lion rampant
to the sinister, while in the other (notification of which was made
through Admiralty letter on 30 January 1903) the lion moves to the
dexter and faces the viewer rather than looking
straight ahead. Its position is neither passant nor rampant, but rather
as if the lion were climbing an invisible staircase. This may have been
due to the fact that the flag in the
crest of the arms is not flying straight out from the pole but is
rather on a diagonal bias, such that the lion - presumably intended to
be passant - appears to be semi-rampant.
Martin Grieve,
7 June 2008