Flag of the Orange Free State

When the Orange Free State became an independent republic in February 1854, the government hoisted a red, white and blue flag.

Details of the exact design have been lost, but it was presumably similar to the contemporary flag of the Netherlands.

It was evidently intended as a temporary flag, as the first State President, Josias Philip Hoffman asked King Willem III of the Netherlands (r. 1849–1890) to give the new state which bore the Dutch royal family's name a flag and coat of arms.

They duly arrived in the Orange Free State in January 1856, and the Volksraad (legislature) resolved on 28 February 1856 that "the design of the flag sent by the King of the Netherlands shall be adopted".

The flag also appears in the music video of the Afrikaans song De la Rey by Bok van Blerk.