![[Royal Flying Corps]](../images/g/gb^rfc-c.gif)
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image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 26 August 2012See also:
Ian Sumner mentions a recruitment poster advertising the RFC (Military Wing)
at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Flying_Corps_poster.jpg. On it,
a flag is shown representing the Royal Flying Corps, or possibly strictly its
Military Wing, though the latter possibility doesn't match the theory that the
colours stand for the two branches of the military plus the light blue of the
skies.
I've tried to draw that flag. As it's displayed rather short, I've
used 2:3. I don't know whether service or camp flags used at the time were of a
specific ratio. For the colours, I've used the colours of the flags of the later
Royal Air Force, though the poster suggests the blue of the skies may have been
lighter, at that time before they became a battleground.
Peter Hans van
den Muijzenberg, 26 August 2012
The term ‘Military Wing’ became unnecessary after 30 June 1914.
The Royal
Flying Corps was constituted by Royal Warrant on 13 April 1912.
As
recommended by the Technical Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence,
it consisted of a Naval Wing and a Military Wing. However the Admiralty ignored
this arrangement and set-up its own flying school, kept its own uniform and
ranks and ordered its own aircraft. The Naval Wing became the Royal Naval Air
Service on 1 July 1914.
David Prothero, 26 August 2012
[concerning the Military Wing flag] - that legend remains valid for the Royal
Air Force, created on 1 April 1918 from the Royal Flying Corps (Army) and the
Royal Naval Air Service (Royal Navy). The full dress (i.e., ceremonial) uniform
of the RFC was, IIRC, blue with red facings, and I suspect that this uniform is
the origin of two of the colours of the flag. It isn't a universal rule for the
choice of flag colours, but there are some examples - such as old Royal
Artillery flags blue with red stripes (blue unforms, faced red), Royal Engineers
flags red with blue stripes (red uniforms faced blue), Royal Army Service Corps
flags blue, yellow and white (blue uniforms faced white with brass buttons).
I've never found anything in the RAF papers in the National Archives to explain
the origins of the colours.
[concerning the dimensions] - I don't think
there was a universal ratio laid down by the War Office - it was much more the
responsibility of the individual corps or regiments. Based on photos I've
collected from the internet and elsewhere, 2:3 and 3:5 look to be the commonest
ratios.
[concerning the colours] - I think the colours in the poster have
degraded over time; your use of the RAF light blue seems a good one to me.
Ian Sumner, 27 August 2012
This is the official flag of the Royal Flying Corps. The source for this
information is "Royal Flying Corps Handbook 1914 - 1918" by the renowned WWI
historian Peter G. Cooksley. The colours in the recreation are correct.
The colours on the two pennants (below) should really be the same
colours as those that have been used for the official flag, as these are RFC
flag pennants with the RFC wings and lettering superimposed on top. The colours
in the photograph of the pennant have degenerated over time, especially the dark
blue at the top and bottom of the flag.
Timothy Smith, 22 March 2013
![[Royal Flying Corps Pennand]](../images/g/gb-rfcp.jpg)
located by Ian Sumner
From
Aeroconservancy.com
![[Royal Flying Corps Pennand]](../images/g/gb-rfcp.gif)
by Marc Pasquin
At http://www.aeroconservancy.com/rfcpennant.htm is a command pennant
that the site claims dates from 1915. It is similar to that of a modern
Group Captain, but longer, with the dark blue lines parallel to the red,
rather than following the edges to a point. It is embroidered with the
letters RFC and a set of pilot's wings, in white.
Further down the page, there is a reference to the book by Hering on
Customs of the RAF, concerning the adoption of the three colours of dark
blue, light blue and red. When the RAF enquired of the War Office if
they had any information about the choice of colours, the reply was in
the negative, but an order of July 1917 was quoted, which stated that a
flag in the three colours, with the letters RFC in black on the red
stripe, was adopted for the headquarters of the RFC in the Field. The
design of the flag was based on the brassards (armbands) worn by RFC
staff officers.
But if the date of the pennant shown is correct, then the date for the
introduction of the colours must be at least two years earlier.
On the page showing RAF rank flags on, Roy Stilling suggests that the
choice of light blue reflected the colour of the RAF's full dress
uniform. In fact, this uniform was introduced only in the early summer
of 1918, and abolished in July of the same year. Given the existence of
the Order of 1917, and this pennant in the photo, the uniform cannot be
the source of the colour.
If I were to guess, I would say that the dark blue and red almost
certainly did come from the colours of the RFC's pre-war uniform,
which was dark blue with red facings. The current grey-blue uniform
dates from September 1919.
An RFC order, current in March 1918, gave the rank flags as -
RFC HQ: two red stripes
Brigade HQ: one red stripe, swallow tailed
Wing HQ: one red stripe, triangular pennant
Squadrons, Army Aircraft Parks, or Aircraft Depots: one red stripe,
pilot's wings above, squadron number below
This was changed on 1 April 1918 for the RAF to Major General, Brigadier
and Wing Commander respectively. There was no provision for squadron
commander's flags until May 1918. In other words, the flags had changed
from indicating a headquarters to indicating rank.
Air Ministry Order 782 of 1918 changed Wing Commander to Colonel.
Lieutenant-colonels were given a pennant with two narrow red stripes;
the old squadron commander's flag was now a Major's.
Army ranks were replaced by Air Force ones on 15th September 1919.
The flags for Air Marshal, Air Chief Marshal and Marshal of the RAF were
not introduced until 1927 (Air Ministry Weekly Order 8).
I've no info on when the device on the squadron commander's flag changed
from the pilot's wings to the eagle. The drawings that accompany Orders
on the subject change shape gradually, as if the artist did not know
what he was looking at.
Ian Sumner, 15 February 2005
On Wikipedia there is a recruitment poster, most probabaly pre-WWI (with
recruits promised "one month furlough per annum on full pay", something not
quite possible during The Great War!) (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Flying_Corps_poster.jpg)
that showed the Union Jack along with what was probably the camp flag of the
Royal Flying Corps: air force blue with navy blue stripes on top and bottom and
a red horizontal stripe at the centre, similar to the RAF Squadron Leader's flag
but without the eagle and number. In other words, the RAF rank flags have their
origin from the RFC camp flag, which dated back to the pre-WWI years.
It is sometimes said that colours of these flags were meant to symbolize the
Navy (navy blue), the Army (red) and the sky (air force blue). Although the RFC
was part of the British Army, it originally had a naval section as well as a
military section, until the Royal Navy, unhappy with having the naval aviation
placed under the Army, formed its own Royal Naval Air Service in 1914. Therefore
the explanation of the flag colours did make sense after all.
Miles Li, 28 July 2007
This poster is advertising the RFC (Military Wing). It must date from the
short period when there was a Naval Wing as well, before the RNAS was formed.
Therefore a strict reading might say that this is the flag only of the RFC
(Military Wing), and not necessarily that of the RFC as a whole. The Naval Wing
(and later, the RNAS) used a White Ensign.
Ian Sumner, 29 July 2007
Royal Flying Corps squadrons did not have colours. The first colours were
only issued to RAF squadrons as a result of a decision taken in 1943.
A
number of squadrons - those who were in France by the time of the battle of Mons
- were each presented with a blue banner to commemorate their presence in
France. They were unofficial, and were never designed to be taken on parade.
[In response to a question specifically about the 47 Squadron "Sans Peur":]
Since 47 Squadron was only formed in 1916 then it would not have qualified
anyway. The squadron qualified for a colour in 1943, but it was not presented
until 1955. I have a note that the squadron has been presented with the
following colours:
25th March 1955 by MRAF Sir John Slessor;
3rd May 1984
by HRH the Princess Anne;
8th June 2006 by HRH the Princess Anne.
Old
colours are usually laid up at RAF Cranwell or at St Clement Danes, London.
Ian Sumner, 26 November 2010
I find it curious that modern scholars view 47 Squadron Royal Flying
Corps as the origin of 47 Squadron Royal Air Force, purely on the basis of the
number 47. 47 Squadron RFC was clearly an Army unit.
The Royal Air
Force, of my time firmly, regarded itself as a separate and equal, Arm of HM
Services and had done so since 1918. As a member of the Royal Air Force, I
believe that we earned that right. I do not mean to be flippant, but one might
as well have chosen the 47th Hussars as the origin. I think I am right in saying
that, throughout history, Unit Colours were, and indeed are, everything. (As in
"Joining the colours".) Whatever else changed, the colours are the constant.
David George, 2 December 2010
Not just scholars, but the RAF thought that as well. Squadrons became
eligible for a standard after a total of twenty-five years' service in the RAF,
RFC or RNAS, or it must have earned the Sovereign's appreciation for
'outstanding operations'. Of course, by the time the decision to adopt standards
had been taken in 1943, all the squadrons in the RAF of 1918 had their
twenty-five years in anyway. But it was obviously the intention to count RFC and
RNAS service as contributing to the twenty-five years should it be appropriate.
Ian Sumner, 3 December 2010
