Hi everyone, I have been asked a lot about the United Kingdom's flag since moving to the United States, specially as at this time of the World Cup I have been flying the Cross of St George from our flag pole. I came across this wonderful description of THE UNITED KINGDOM FLAG, written by a young girl called Jody Ghani for KIDLINK youth. can really do know better than she has already done.



The flag is normally called the "Union Jack" because it represents a union of countries - England, Ireland, and Scotland and Wales (the flag does not include a flag from Wales because Wales was never ruled in the same way that the other countries were ruled).

Actually it shouldn't be called the "Union Jack", because a jack is a flag that is flown on a jack staff which is a small flag pole on the back of a naval ship. So it should be called the "Union Flag".

The Union Jack/Flag includes the Cross of St. George (England), the Cross of St. Andrew (Scotland) and the Cross of St. Patrick (Ireland).

In 1606, the first flag of Great Britain was developed, which included the crosses of England and Scotland (at this point, Ireland had not been united with England or Scotland).

The red cross (England) had to be put onto the white on blue cross (Scotland), and a white border was added for reasons of HERALDRY. This flag was used during the reign of James 1 and Charles 1 (1603-1649), and up until 1801.

In that year, Ireland became united officially with England, so the Nation's flag had to be changed to include the Irish Cross (red diagonal cross on white). The designers had to make sure that all the crosses could be recognized as individual flags as well as being in the same flag together.

They did this by making the background white (Scottish Cross) broader on one side of the Irish red than on the other (see picture). This meant that all the separate crosses could be seen and the Irish Cross had it's origianal white background.

If your nation's flag has a little Union Jack in the corner of it, then your country is probably a member of the Commonwealth Nations which include: Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, as well as many other countries around the world.

The Union Jack is the most important of all British symbols, and it is flown by representatives of the United Kingdom all over the world; in the military and the navy, and in royalty.

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