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The story of the United Kingdom and the Union Flag.
A flag containing three other flags. The Union Flag - the flag of the United Kingdom (UK) The Union Flag, popularly known as the *Union Jack, is the national flag of the United Kingdom. It is the British flag. It is called the Union Flag because it symbolises the administrative union of the countries of the United Kingdom. It is made up up of the individual Flags of three of the Kingdom's countries all united under one Sovereign - the countries of 'England, of 'Scotland' and of 'Northern Ireland' (since 1921 only Northern Ireland has been part of the United Kingdom). As Wales was not a Kingdom but a Principality it could not be included on the flag. The following pages will tell you how the Union Flag (Union Jack) came to be the UK's national flag and the making of the United Kingdom. (Click on the arrow below) References *"It is often stated that the Union Flag should only be described as the Union Jack when flown in the bows of a warship, but this is a relatively recent idea. From early in its life the Admiralty itself frequently referred to the flag as the Union Jack, whatever its use, and in 1902 an Admiralty Circular announced that Their Lordships had decided that either name could be used officially. Such use was given Parliamentary approval in 1908 when it was stated that “the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag”." So - “…the jack flag had existed for over a hundred and fifty years before the jack staff…” If anything the jack-staff is named after the Union Jack - and not the other way around! The Flag Institute website www.flaginstitute.org Historian David Starkey said in that Channel 4 tv programme that the Union Flag is called 'Jack' because it is named after James l of Great Britain (Jacobus , Latin for James), who introduced the flag following his accession to the throne.

© Copyright Mandy Barrow 2013

www.mandybarrow.com

Mandy is the creator of the Woodlands Resources section of the Woodlands Junior website. 
The two websites projectbritain.com and primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk are the new homes for the Woodlands Resources.

Mandy left Woodlands in 2003 to work in Kent schools as an ICT Consulatant. 
She now teaches computers at The Granville School and St. John's Primary School in Sevenoaks Kent.

Woodlands Junior Homework Help new website