FLAGS AND EMBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 120, 25 May 1927, Page 26

FLAGS AND EMBLEMS

HIBTOBIC SYMBOLS. Many legends have grown up round armorial bearings, but according to Lieut.-Colonel Whitton, who writes on "Flags and Emblems" in the. "Nineteenth Century,'? the most picturesque of them, the story-that the Prince of Wales's feathers,-with the motto "Ich Dien," were.taken from the crest of the blind King of.. Bohemia, killed at Crecy, will not stand the test of research. The- feathers were not the King's crest. They seem to have come from the family of the Prince's mother, Phillipa of Hainault.' Flags : are very much older.-than armorial bearings. From early times they have- been used to preserve organisation and discipline in battle and to inspire courage. " In the armies of ancient Egypt each battalion, and even' each company, had a standard representing a sacred subject —a King's name, a sacred boat, or an animal signifying a god. The post of standard-bearer' was. one' of great hon- ! our; The Assyrians ■ seem to have had only two-designs, one consisting of an archer standing on a galloping bull, and the other of two bulls galloping in different directions.- Both. Assyrian and Egyptian warships carried emblems on sails. The Persians used their deity, the Bun, as a battle emblem. Isaiah, who lived in a time of great wars, ' speaks of confusion, and despair '' as when a standard-bearer fainteth."

The Greeks used their flags for signalling. The cities bore animal designs as emblems, the Athenians fighting under the sacred owl of Minerva. In the Roman army it was Marius who abolished "class distinctions'' and gave to the legion as a whole the eagle. It was a small - silver or bronze bird with extended wings. To lose the eagle was the supreme disgrace. Caesar's stand-ard-bearer of the tenth legion, when his followers hesitated under the cliffs of Britain, plunged into'the sea and carried the eagle toward the shore saying, "I at least will go in duty to Borne and Caesar.'' Great ceremony attended the planting of the eagles when: camp was pitched, and when the; inarch was resumed it was an evil omen if the staff did not easily come free of .the ground. From the time of Cons tan tin j Boman armies fought under the labarum, formed of two first Greek letters of the word Christ/ The individual knight and his personal emblem formed the rallying point of medieval armies, though religious' banners played their parts in -some great 'Victories. Great generals, such as Napoleon and Frederick: the Great, made the most of the sentiment toward- the colours. In the Crimea and the' American Civil War they were regarded with the greatest devotion and enthnsiasm. British colours have not been carried in battle since the Zulu Wi.r, when Lieutenants Melville and Coghill. lost their lives trying to saye the colours of the 24th Begiment. Com-; mon both to the British Army and the American is the practice of carrying two colours, one peculiarly identified with the regiment, the other symbolising its connection with the sovereign in the British. Army, and the nation in the American. The claim of any ship bearing the King V flag to be saluted by any: foreign vessel in the English Channel was stoutly maintained iill Trafalgar. Phillir of Spain, coming to marry Mary, was fired on by the British Lord High Admiral for flying his own flag in the Channel. There were.then three naval ensigns: white,, which signified that the ship's position was in the van; red, denoting station in the centre, and blue for ships in the rear of the fleet. Fleets became smaller as ironclads displaced wooden vessels. White became restricted to the navy and the Royal Yacht Squadron under- heavy penalties; the blue enßign is the flag of the public service other than the navy, mi?d the red ensign belongs to the mer«hw|t service.