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Kingston, Ontario (Canada)

Frontenac County

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

Kingston
Current Flag
Former Flags
Kingston Police Service

See also:

Kingston

Kingston is a city in eastern Ontario, Canada. It is on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec.

Current Flag

Text and image(s) from Canadian City Flags, Raven 18 (2011), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) by permission of Eugene Ipavec.

Design

The flag of the City of Kingston has a red field with three wavy horizontal stripes of white-blue-white, edged in black, in the lower third. Rising out of them on the left is a round stone tower with two windows and a conical roof, in white with black details, just over half the height of the flag. In the upper fly are three yellow eastern crowns, two over one, outlined in black, each with five points and one-sixth the height of the flag. The Pantone colours are red 186 C, yellow 123 C, and blue 286 C.
Doreen Braverman, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Symbolism

The red field is one of the national colours of Canada. The blue and white wavy stripes represent the confluence of three bodies of water in the Kingston area—Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and the Cataraqui River/Rideau Canal System. The tower represents the Martello Tower, the outstanding feature of Kingston’s waterfront which has symbolized the city for over 150 years. It represents strength and firmness of resolve, as well as Kingston’s extensive military connections. The three eastern crowns are positioned to reflect the geographic arrangement of the three former municipalities that combined to form the City of Kingston in 1998—the Town of Kingston, the City of Kingston, and the Town of Pittsburgh. The flag rearranges the elements from the shield of the city’s coat of arms.
Doreen Braverman, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Selection

A committee formed in May 1998 worked with Robert D. Watt, Chief Herald of Canada, to develop a design for the coat of arms. The arms and flag were granted 11 January 1999 by the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
Doreen Braverman, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Designer

A committee comprising three councillors, George Beavis, Leonore Foster, and Don Rogers, as well as six citizens: Robert Cardwell and Peter Dorn of the Pittsburgh Historical Society, Edward R. Grenda of the Kingston Historical Society, Roland Laframboise, a member of the College of Arms, Marjorie Simmons of the Genealogical Society, and Lawry Raskin, a graphic designer who drafted the committee’s ideas into drawings.
Doreen Braverman, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Former Flags

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

The City of Kingston had two flags before the merger (the Towns of Kingston and Pittsburgh reportedly did not). The “citizen’s flag”, for non-governmental display, has a white field, with a large “Y” in teal running from the base of the flag to the upper edge, with its tips touching the upper corners. In the centre is a red disc, three-eighths the height of the flag, ringed by a band consisting of four concentric circles of golden yellow edged in black, with maple leaves pointing outwards at the four cardinal positions, in golden yellow with black details. Within the ring is an image of the Martello Tower in white with black details and golden yellow shading.
Doreen Braverman, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

The “official” or “city” flag was used only on civic buildings and at civic parades. Its proportions are 2:3. On a field of medium blue, a horizontal “Y” shape runs with its arms straight and touching the hoist corners and its trunk wavy and running to the fly at about one-third the height of the flag. The “Y” consists of stripes of white-blue-white in proportions of 4:3:4. Two-thirds of the way to the hoist and overlaid by the wavy trunk of the “Y” is a shield three-fourths the height of the flag. The shield is red with a golden-yellow border and places an eastern crown over the Martello Tower, both in golden yellow with black details; at its base are two wavy lines, blue over white. On both flags the “Y” shape represents Kingston’s location at the junction of the three bodies of water, the tower (of limestone) reflects the area’s geology and the city’s historic role in the defence of Canada, and the colours gold and blue suggest a royal city, which Kingston is by name and association. They were chosen in a public flag competition in 1974.
Doreen Braverman, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Kingston Police Service

image located by Dave Fowler, 15 December 2016
Source: http://reg.gg.ca/heraldry/pub-reg/project.asp?lang=e&ProjectID=2786

Flag and badge granted April 15, 2016

Blazon: Azure the Badge cantoned by maple leaves, stem to the centre, each ensigned by an ancient crown Or.

The ancient crowns and maple leaves symbolize that the force was established in the same year of 1841 that the city of Kingston was named as the capital of the Province of Canada.
Dave Fowler, 15 December 2016