Sledge flag used on Nares' Arctic expedition 1875. It belonged to Lieutenant Alfred Arthur Chase Parr of HMS 'Alert' and was flown by HM sledge 'Victoria'. It is a swallow-tailed silk pennant, hand-sewn and embroidered. The hoist end is reinforced with cotton muslin and the edges of the flag are finished in blue and white cord. It is attached to a wooden rod with brass ends. The hoist end of the pennant is white, bearing a red cross, the fly divided horizontally white over blue, embroidered with a queen's head in the centre.

This is the type of design approved by Sir Clements Markham, an enthusiast for genealogy and heraldry: 'The cross of St George at the hoist to denote that, whatever family the bearer may belong to, he is first and foremost an Englishman'. 'The Lands of Silence' (London, 1921) p. 450. Clement Markham accompanied this expedition in which his cousin Albert Hastings Markham also served.