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Royal Temple Yacht Club (United Kingdom)

image by Clay Moss

Flag of the club
Burgee
1898 burgee
Former Temple Yacht Club

Flag of the club

The Royal Temple Yacht Club uses a plain blue ensign, undefaced. Blue ensign granted 27 April 1898.
David Prothero, 7 June 2014

Established 4 March 1857, at Ramsgate, Kent, as Temple Yacht Club.
1857 ? No warrant, plain Blue Ensign, blue burgee: T Y C in white.
18 May 1897. Granted title ‘royal’.
27 April 1898. Warrant for plain Blue Ensign. Blue burgee: in hoist, white Pegasus superimposed on yellow foul anchor surmounted by crown, horizontal red-edged white T in fly.
1907. T removed from burgee.
David Prothero, 13 February 2015

Burgee

image located by David Prothero, 13 February 2015
Source: Hounsell Brothers Flag Book c1873.

image located by David Prothero, 13 February 2015
Source: Album des Pavillions Nationaux, 1923.

The Dumpy Book of Ships and the Sea (1957) shows the burgee blue with an anchor surmounted by a crown. The anchor is overlaid with what looks like a winged horse, facing the hoist. Colours are uncertain, but probably yellow or white.
James Dignan, 12 February 2008

Blue burgee: close to the hoist, white Pegasus superimposed on yellow foul anchor surmounted by a full colour crown.
David Prothero, 7 June 2014

1898 burgee

image located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 March 2018

I've now found an image of the 1898-1907 burgee in Lloyd's Yacht Register [LLoXXb]? 1902-1903.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 March 2018

Former Temple Yacht Club

image provided by Peter Edwards, 2 March 2018

Temple Yacht Club (United Kingdom)

Est: 1857.
Location: Temple Steps, Inns of Court, London.
Burgee: Pennant. 1:2 (image). Blue field superimposed by a yellow Pegasus facing hoist.
Notes: The Ramsgate, Kent location was opened in 1896. The clubhouse was requisitioned as a shore base by the Royal Navy and commissioned as HMS Fervant on 10 October 1939 (to 1945?). "The coat of arms of the Inner Temple is, in blazon, Azure a pagasus silent argent."
Sources: Image, Lloyd's Register of Yachts, 1880, Pl. 11.
http://www.rtyc.com/about-us/rtyc-history
http://www.fors.vision/areas-we-watch-over/hms-fervent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Temple
Peter Edwards, 1 March 2018

Temple Steps, London, as I understand it, was on the Victoria Embankment, thus on the River Thames. This was the location they sailed from. (https://www.rtyc.com/about-us/rtyc-history/) Likely, it wasn't where they gathered socially.

Unfortunately, a London club would be unlikely to have been established at Ramsgate, as we now have it for the RTYC. According to the history page the traffic in London gradually drove the races further down-river, eventually to Ramsgate. The Headquarters remained in London, though: e.g. 1902 they were the Hotel Cecil.

The burgee pennant matches the burgee of the RTYC, where the burgee bears a crowned fouled anchor with superimposed a similar Pegasus, just turned to white, likely for contrast.

The opening of the Ramsgate, Kent, location in 1896 was apparently a whole rebirth. New location in 1896, Royal Charter in 1897, blue ensign in 1898.

I first interpreted blazon as "a Pegasus segreant argent" - a white winged horse, rearing with its wings extended - which seemed to match the burgee. But I have now looked up the Inner Temple. This is "The Honourable Society of The Inner Temple": an Inn of Court, a professional organisation of judges and barristers. The charge in those arms tends to be depicted with at least some of its hooves together. So, I'm now inclined to read it as "a Pegasus salient argent" (a jumping white winged horse). The Pegasus of the club just doesn't match it that closely.

A summary of events:
- 1857: Founded; no information on the burgee as yet. (RTYC history page)
- 1873 ca.: Really Dark Blue burgee bearing white letters "T.Y.C.". (Hounsell Brothers Flag Book, presumably Flags and Signals of All
Nations [hou73].)
- 1880: Blue burgee bearing a yellow Pegasus facing the hoist (Lloyd's Yacht Register [LLoXXb]? 1880)
- 1896: Clubhouse in Ramsgate (burgee may have changed to indicate the location)
- 1897: Royal Charter (burgee may have changed to indicate the charter)
- 1898 - 1907: Blue ensign; blue burgee bearing in the hoist a white Pegasus superimposed on yellow foul anchor surmounted by a crown, in the fly a horizontal red T fimbriated white.
- 1907- present day: T removed from burgee: Blue burgee bearing a white pegasus facing the hoist on a yellow crowned fouled anchor (Album des Pavillions Nationaux, 1923)
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 March 2018

There’s no doubt that the Temple Yacht Club is the predecessor of the Royal Temple Yacht Club.
My quote of the blazon was only to justify my use of “Pegasus;” both it and "winged horse" are used in the RTYC post. I have always thought of a Pegasus as a winged unicorn - which the image on this burgee is not.
As for an “iron clad sequence of burgees” this is difficult, but I suggest:
    Temple YC established - 1857
    TYC burgee - 1857 to 1874
    Pegasus burgee - 1874 to 1897
    Horizontal red T burgee from 1898 - 1907
    Pegasus + Crown + Anchor burgee - 1907 to date.
Peter Edwards, 2 March 2018