I trust that you had a joyous holiday season and that the New Year is off to a great start for you and yours.

Our Society kicked off the New Year in grand style. We had a special treat at our January meeting. Our three 2003 scholarship winners and their families were our guests. We were treated to some very fine piping and lovely highland dancing. There were thirty-three members and guests at the gathering and wonderful fellowship as is the norm at our gatherings.

The 2004 Scholarship Program is underway. Walt Brown has an ample supply of applications and he will be happy to get one to you or to someone that you want to encourage to apply.

Our scholarship fund had a balance of a little over $1,000 on the first of January, and we are counting on that balance being substantially larger after our Burns Night festivities.

February 29, 2004 is the end of our fiscal year with Burns Night the last of our scheduled activities until March 1, 2004 when our new fiscal year begins. Coincidentally, our March meeting will be on the first day of our new administrative year. We plan to return to the Inlet Inn for the March 1 meeting which will also be our annual business meeting. I encourage you to attend and look forward to seeing you there.

Yours aye,
     Oliver Hamilton

Approximately 100 members and friends attended the first of what is hoped to be an annual St. Andrew’s Day Dinner held on 22 November at the Princess Anne Country Club in Virginia Beach. Ms. Susan Stewart, First Secretary for Scottish Affairs at the British Embassy in Washington, D. C. was our after dinner speaker and shared with us some of the issues in a modern Scotland. We were very pleased to have Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf and her husband, Roger, as our dinner guests. The Mayor presented the Society with a proclamation designatingNovember 30, 2003 as St. Andrew’s Day in Virginia Beach. Many thanks to member Joe Hood, who made the Club arrangements.

The Board is pleased to announce its consideration of a new member: Mrs. Sandra Stephenson Long. The Board will vote on this application at its February 17th meeting.

Would you like to invite someone to join St. Andrew’s Society of Tidewater? An application is on page 4 of this issue of the Tidalaire and can also be obtained from the web site: www.tidewaterscots.org.

The flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is commonly called the Union Jack. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the English used the cross of St. George, a red cross on a white background, as the flag of England. During that time, the Scottish flag was the Saltire, a white Saint Andrew’s cross on a sky-blue background.

At the death of Queen Elizabeth, James VI of Scotland/united the crowns of the two countries as James I of England. A new flag was necessary and the Union Flag created, based on the flag of St. George, the patron saint of England, and the Saltire cross of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. As Wales was already united with England at that time, the Welsh dragon was not included. In 1801, when Ireland joined the United Kingdom, the Union Flag was updated to incorporate the cross of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.

The flag of the United Kingdom, the Union Jack, is, then, a superposition of the flags of St. George, St. Andrew and St. Patrick. This superposition is quite intricate, and often drawn incorrectly. The diagram below illustrates correction construction of the flag which should be twice as wide as it is high.

Which of “Union Jack” or “Union Flag” is the correct name?

The Flag Institute answers as follows: “It is often stated that the Union Flag should only be described as the Union Jack when flown in the bow of a warship, but this is a relatively recent idea. From early in its life the Admiralty itself frequently referred to the flag as the Union Jack, whatever its use, and in 1902 an Admiralty Circular announced that Their Lordships had decided that either name could be used officially.” Such use was given Parliamentary approval in 1908 when it was stated that “the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag.”

The Royal Navy, however, disagrees: “The national flag of the United Kingdom is worn as a Jack at the bow by all HM ships in commission when alongside or when ‘dressed overall.’ This is the only occasion when it is correctly called the Union Jack, although it is general known by this name through common usage. It is also flown during Courts Martial and is the Distinguishing Flag of an Admiral of the Fleet.”

Which of the Flag Institute and the Royal Navy is right? The Naval Historic Branch at Great Scotland Yard, answered as follows: “Both and neither. A jack is a sea flag, a small flag, generally rather square in its proportions, flown from a flagstaff rigged on the bowsprit or stem of the vessel. The earliest known reference to a ‘jack’ of such a type occurs in 1633, the first reference to the Union (rather than the ‘Britain’ or ‘British’ flag) dating from 1625—the Union Flag and the naval jack are much the same… Technically, all Union Jacks are Union Flags, but not vice versa. It is a fine point and one that is much argued over, but it is beyond question that the habit of treating the two terms as interchangeable developed early and it would not be difficult to multiply instances of individuals who undoubtedly did understand the distinction nevertheless following common usage and using the term Union Jack when Union Flag is clearly meant.

The Royal Navy website is quite right in that the Union Jack flown in the bows of commissioned ships is the only one which really is a jack, but not quite so in that being the only occasion when it is ‘correctly’ so called—because the Flag Institute is right that the use of Union Jack to mean any Union Flag has been sanctioned both by the Admiralty and by Parliament.”