[2] and was flown from the Department of Communities and Local Government at Eland House, London on Sussex Day, 16 June 2011.

It is now firmly regarded that the county emblem originated and derived from the coat of arms of the 14th century Knight of the Shire, Sir John de Radynden.

Chairman of the judging panel, Graham Bartram said: "Well it had very clear Sussex symbolism.

[8] Many of the proposed designs incorporated the charge of six martlets (a mythical bird found in heraldry, essentially representative of a swift) that have been traditionally associated with Sussex for centuries and that have appeared on the various forms of arms used in the county.

[8] There was also a flag proposed by the Sussex Party, a minor regionalist group, which proposed a flag consisting of four horizontal bands coloured blue, green, yellow and blue, representing the Sussex landscape, with a yellow disc in the top-left corner representing the sun.

[9] The Sussex Motor Yacht Club, located in Brighton, was founded in 1907 and uses a burgee that employs Sussex-related emblems.

The club's burgee is blue, with a white shield which bears the six martlets (heraldic swallows) in red (gules) atop a three-bladed propeller.