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image located by Jason Saber,
20 June 2015See also:
The new county flag is being launched at the Provost's Christmas Reception on
Thursday 13 December.
John Moody, 6 December 2018
From
https://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/17298691.more-than-1500-vote-cast-in-competition-to-choose-a-flag-for-east-lothian/:
More than 1,500 vote cast in competition to choose a flag for East
Lothian
By
https://www.eastlothiancourier.com/author/profile/293588.Marie_Sharp/
A DESIGN created by a retired council worker who died earlier this year has
been chosen by the public to become the new flag of East Lothian. Archie
Martin's design (see below) was one of four chosen out of 620 entries to be put
forward to the public vote in the East Lothian Courier-backed competition to
create the county's civic flag. Sadly, Mr Martin, from Gifford, died suddenly in
July, just days before the finalists were unveiled. His family gave the local
authority permission to keep it in the contest and last night it was revealed it
had won the backing of the public.
The winning flag features the Saltire
design on blue to mark East Lothian's status as birthplace of the national flag.
A gold cross signifies the wealth of East Lothian's farmlands and reputation as
the granary of Scotland and the Haddington lion is also prominent, along with
blue stripes to represent the rivers Esk and Tyne. East Lothian Provost John
McMillan said: "It was an emotional evening and an absolute privilege to be
there at the announcement of the wonderful winning design.
Originally
from Musselburgh, Mr Martin worked at East Lothian Council for 23 years joining
from Orkney Islands Council in 1990. He was a landscape architect and worked in
planning dealing with many of the local authority's environmental improvement
projects including the landscaping of the front of the council buildings and
Corn Exchange, on Haddington's Court Street, which used to be a car park and
Civic Square and Winton Place in Tranent.
Lord Lyon Joseph Morrow
attended the unveiling of the winning flag and sent his best wishes to Mr
Martin's family. He said: "I look forward to recording the flag in the historic
register of the Lyon Court." David Williamson, chairman of the Scottish Flag
Trust, said: "The Scottish Flag Trust initiated the idea of a design competition
for a civic flag for East Lothian in the summer of 2017, and we are delighted to
see it come to fruition. "I think everyone can be pleased with Archie Martin's
distinctive flag design which attracted a clear majority of votes."
The
competition to design a unique flag for East Lothian was launched in November
2017 and captured the imagination of both local people and even those as far
away as the USA and New Zealand, as 623 entries were received from people of all
ages and from all over the UK and further afield. Judging began in March 2018
with an initial sift of the huge number of designs submitted - the most in any
civic flag design competition across Scotland. The final designs to go forward
for the public vote were chosen and voting began in summer 2018 for a period of
four weeks. A total of 1,532 votes were cast. The design has now been registered
with the Lord Lyon and will be available on the Scottish Flag Trust website at
http://www.scottishflagtrust.com
shortly for anyone with an interest in East Lothian to view and use.
John
Moody, 14 December 2018
