White Ensign

The Flag of the British Antarctic Territory and the Commissioners' flag of the Northern Lighthouse Board place the Union emblem in the first quarter of a white field, omitting the overall red St George's Cross, but they are not ensigns for use at sea.

Later, there was usually a St George's Cross in the upper canton, or sewn across the field as on the modern White Ensign.

Royal Navy ships and submarines wear the White Ensign at all times when underway on the surface.

The U.S. Navy destroyer Winston S. Churchill is the only U.S. warship to fly the White Ensign along with the Stars and Stripes to honour her British namesake, the former prime minister.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain, although a merchant ship, appears to have worn (and still bears and flies, preserved in dry dock as a historical exhibit/museum ship) the White Ensign, apparently because its first master (an ex-Royal Navy man) brought it with him.

This flag, however, was until 2013 not used as the ensign, but as the jack, and also as the basis of the sovereign's colours of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Many Canadian veterans' organisations still use the original White and Blue Ensigns unofficially as symbols of history and heritage.

The modified RAN and RNZN White Ensigns incorporate the Union Flag in the first quarter, but with the Southern Cross designs from each national flag (blue stars for the RAN and red stars for the RNZN) replacing St. George's Cross.

[4] Aside from being flown by the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, the British Naval Ensign is authorised to be used at the HMS Seraph memorial on the campus of The Citadel.

[5] The White Ensign also flies over the British Cemetery on Ocracoke, North Carolina, which contains the remains of several seamen from HMT Bedfordshire, as well as a memorial to the lost naval trawler, which was sunk off the coast of Ocracoke Island in May 1942.

The burgee of the Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda is sometimes misidentified as a White Ensign; the burgee is a white swallowtail pennant (similar to a Royal Navy Commodore's) with the Union Flag is use until 1801 in the upper hoist canton.

In the 19th and early 20th century, steamers of the Furness Railway on Lake Windemere flew the white ensign "as the admiralty only exercised jurisdiction over the high seas" and "repeated requests from the admiralty to desist were met with polite refusals"[7] An unofficial white ensign design featuring the royal symbols of the dominions and India was created in the early 20th century to demonstrate the British Empire evolving into a community of nations.

The Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club of Bermuda uses a white ensign defaced with the red abbreviation R.H.A.D.C.

White Ensign flying from HMS Foxhound , 1943.
Striped ensigns flying on English and Spanish galleons in 1588: (enlarge image for detailed view)
The White Ensign flying from a Royal Navy vessel.
A Royal Marine holding up the White Ensign aboard HMS Pegasus , during the Battle of Zanzibar (20 September 1914).
The White Ensign flying from St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square , London.
A Bermuda sloop on the Spanish Main, c. 1807 , flies a white ensign with the St. George's Cross but without the Union Jack in the canton
HMS Trafalgar wearing a 'masthead' White Ensign flag
Admiralty Arch in Trafalgar Square of London is customarily decorated with white ensigns on state occasions such as this St. George's Day in 2011
Canadian seamen display the White Ensign during World War II. The other flag is a Nazi German Reichskriegsflagge .
The White Ensign hanging in the British Columbia Parliament Buildings
The Australian White Ensign.
USS Winston S. Churchill
An unofficial British Empire flag from the interwar period [ 6 ]
White Ensign of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club of Bermuda. [ 9 ]