Flags & Colours

Every Scout Troop has its own colours (or flags) in addition to a Union Flag (the National Flag of the United Kingdom).

2nd Renfrew was presented with its own colours by the Kirk Session and Managers’ Court of Trinity Church at a church service on 17 June 1923, on which date Rev. Robert B. Hastie, who started the Troop, took his farewell of Trinity Church.

For preservation purposes, our original colours (both Troop and Union Flag) are kept in the Church, but we decided a Centenary is an important event, so flew both sets at our memorabilia display.  Due to their very good condition, some of our young people gave the Scout Leaders a grilling as they didn’t believe the colours were almost 100 years old.  As we noted above, original colours never usually leave the church (they were allowed out for their 98th birthday – a real treat for them!), so ensure their good condition is maintained, the Troop has an operational set which is used for all Parades.  These colours were also flying at the memorabilia display.

The original and operational Union Flags are the same, but the Group original and operational ones are different.  We’re not entirely sure why there is a difference (if anyone’s aware of a specific reason, please let us know), but we assume it’s due to the new operational set being more ‘modern’ as they were inaugurated in March 1969.  There’s a reference to the old colours being ‘laid up’ on Sunday, 2 March 1969 in Volume Two of the Troop Newsletter published in January 1969.  (We have a scanned version of the Newsletter, so if any former member would like a copy, please let us know.)

In addition, having trawled through Parents’ Committee Minute Books, we realised that there was another set of Group colours.  There is a record of approval of these colours at a meeting in October 1948, with said colours being dedicated on Sunday 7 November 1948.  We’ve therefore had 3 sets of colours – 1923 (which were displayed at our memorabilia events); 1948; 1969 (also displayed at our events).

Now for some learning:  With regard to the Union Flag, did you know that it is made of up of the crosses from national flags of England (St. George), Scotland (St. Andrew), and Ireland (St. Patrick), was adopted in 1801 and is normally twice as long as it is tall (that’s a ratio of 2:1, although it can also be 3:2)?  Did you also know that there was never a formal law passed to legalise the use of the Union Flag?

Here’s another question – did know that it’s known as the Union Flag and known as the Union Jack, but term Union Jack is used when the flag is flown from a ship of war, and if the Union Flag is flown upside down that’s a signal for distress?

Although the look of the flag doesn’t make it easy to know which way it hangs, there is a correct way.  In years gone by, Scouts had to obtain a ‘Tenderfoot’ Badge (there’s more on that in the Badges section), one of the requirements of that test being that Scouts had to know the composition of the Union Flag and which way to hang it.

• Here’s a wee teaser for you:
  • There are two Union Flags below – which one is correct?
  • Would you have passed this bit of the Tenderfoot Test?

In our archives from Douglas Killin, a former Group Scout Leader, we came across a small card where you can move the parts of the individual crosses which make the Union Flag.  When we did some investigation we discovered that the card dated back to the 1920’s, which was a perfect fit for our Centenary, so we had the card on display for everyone to move the parts to create the Union Flag.  We have another Union Flag card which had been printed and sponsored by Bovril.  It was very old too so, like the 1920’s one, it was accompanied by an instruction of ‘I’m very old, so please look after me and handle me with care’!

If you’d like to do a bit more about the flags, we think this article may be helpful.

Flags are important as they give countries and organisations their identity and individuality.  However (and this is just a note for general information – nothing to do with our Centenary) the flags of some countries are almost identical, the difference being in colour or shading.  Some flags are similar due to the countries having been part of a bigger country at one time; others are similar because the symbols or colours match each other.

In case you’d like to look into it further, some countries with similar flags are:  India/Niger; Chad/Romania; Yemen/Syria; Bangladesh/Japan; Australia/New Zealand; Indonesia/Monaco.

Another general note is that not all flags are rectangular – the following countries have non-rectangular flags:  Nepal; Switzerland; the Vatican City.

In addition to providing identity, flags are also used for semaphore which is a way of sending coded information.  To send the information, semaphore uses the alphabet so that the flags are held a different way for each letter.  In years gone by, Scouts who passed their Tenderfoot Badge went on to work on their Second Class Badge, then their First Class Badge.  When they reached First Class level, as part of their test, they had to send and receive a message in Semaphore or Morse Code at a specified rate of words per minute.  No mean feat!  Here’s the Semaphore alphabet:

• Did you know that:
  • the only time the flags overlap is in the ‘space’ position
  • flags for semaphore are yellow and red when used at sea, but when used on land the flags are white and blue
  • both sea and land flags are on short poles.
• We had semaphore flags available for visitors to the displays and encouraged everyone to have a go.  Here’s an image of our Flags display at the memorabilia events. 
  (Please note that the Troop’s Colours and Union Flag were flown on the platform which was at the side of the Flags display.)
• It’s fair to say there was a bit of competition amongst the former members, one of whom (Jim Hair, a former Scout Leader) remembered the position of every letter perfectly and took great delight in showing those who couldn’t remember!  Jim then reminded everyone that he is a former Scout Leader who had to know the semaphore to teach the Scouts and that he was certainly not going to stand in front his Scouts with a piece of paper with the instructions!

Semaphore is used on ships, but not only that, ships have flags which use a maritime alphabet as shown below.

• Did you know that:

The words or phrases for these letters have a singular and international use.  Some are the same, for example ‘O’ is ‘Man Overboard’ for both singular and international, ‘Z’ – ‘I require a tug’ is international only, but ‘K’ is ‘Personnel working aloft’ for singular, and for international it’s ‘I wish to communicate with you’.

Ships also use pennants, which are triangular flags, for conveying messages.

A final word on pennants – 2nd Renfrew has pennants as well, but not for messages.  Ours are to remember places we’ve been.  Our Rover Scouts collected a considerable number of place pennants, many of which we took great delight in hanging on a ‘washing line’ in the Camp section of our displays.

Before we finish, a note on Morse Code.  You’ve read that First Class Scouts had to know Morse Code.  This proved very useful for First Class Scouts, or those working for that badge, who were involved in Scouting during the war years.  There’s an awful lot more on that subject in the War Years section – it’s well worth a read (although we say so ourselves!).

Finally …

There’s a lot of information about flags and too much for us to cover here, so if you’re interested, why don’t you do some research, as  if you’re in a Youth Organisation you might be able to tie your research in to a badge.  Go for it – it’s never too late to learn!