Ensign of the Director of the Nigeria Marine

Ensign of the Director of the Nigeria Marine.

The bunting is wool and synthetic fibre blend and the ensign has a cotton hoist containing a rope for hoisting, a wooden batten and a brass eyelet. The ensign is machine sewn with a printed badge. It has a blue field with a Union Flag in the canton and a red disc in the hoist, on which is a six-pointed green star with a gold crown in the centre and 'NIGERIA' in white letters. Stencilled on the hoist is the maker's name and '4 x 2 195...'

The flag was worn on Captain F. W. J. Skutil's last official tour of Nigeria Marine stations and flown on the headquarters flagstaff on the last day before independence.

The green star badge was based on the design on a brass jug acquired by British troops after the defeat of the Emir of Kontagora in January 1901. Frederick John Dealtry Lugard (1858-1945) suggested it as a badge for Northern Nigeria and it was adopted for the country as a whole when Northern and Southern Nigeria were amalgamated in 1914.

Object Details

ID: AAA0511
Collection: Flags
Type: Naval ensign
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Porter Bros
Date made: Before 1955
People: Nigerian Protectorate; Skutil, Francis William Nigeria: Royal Navy
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: flag: 635 x 1295.4 mm