Last modified: 2011-06-11 by rob raeside
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Used 1889-1914
David Prothero, 23 September 2000
The none-too imaginative British had the same badge for all their minor West African possessions. This one is for Sierra Leone. The Gambia differs only by having the initial "G." instead of "S.L.", and the Gold Coast (now Ghana) had "G.C."
Josh Fruhlinger, 13 February 1998
They were not that unimaginative! Although what you say is true of Gambia and Gold Coast, Sierra Leone adopted its own coat of arms in 1914. A second coat of arms (still used) was adopted in 1960: a gold lion passant on a green field; a white chief dancetty (zig-zagged) upon which are three torches. At the base two blue wavy lines on white symbolizing the sea.
With the addition of a crown surmounded 'E' on a blue disc surrounded by a chaplet of gold roses, the arms formed the Royal flag of Sierra Leone until the country became a republic in 1971.
Stuart Notholt, 14 February 1996
by Martin Grieve, 25 April 2009
According to Capt. EMC Barraclough in "Flags of the world), 1965
on page 91:
"The badge on the Union Flag and
Blue Ensign which this flag supersedes comprised a Union Flag as it was before
1801. The lower part was divided into halves: a liberated slave seated on the
seashore with a ship, reputed to be H.M. brig "Miro", in the offing; and a
palm-tree on a golden ground. Beneath was a motto "AUSPICE BRITTANIA LIBER"
("Free under Britain's protection")"
It is somewhat of a mystery as to what
seat the native is sitting upon.
Martin Grieve, 25 April 2009
image by Martin Grieve, 25 April 2009
image by Martin Grieve, 26 April 2009
A Union Jack with the national badge centred.