Flag of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

What the flag looks like

The flag follows the pattern of a British Blue Ensign. The field is dark blue, the Union Jack fills the upper hoist corner, and the territory's coat of arms stands on the right half, in the fly. The flag has a ratio of 1:2. The arms show a shield held by an Antarctic fur seal and a penguin, with a scroll below carrying the Latin motto Leo terram propriam protegat, which means “Let the lion protect its own land”.

The Union Jack gives the flag its red, white and blue, while the arms add the wildlife and Antarctic setting. A close relative is the flag of the neighboring Falkland Islands, which is also a Blue Ensign with a local badge.

Which flag is official here?

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. The Union Jack is the official national flag of the United Kingdom and is flown on the islands, and the Blue Ensign with the territory's arms is the territory's own flag. It is flown by the Government of the territory at King Edward Point and used in official contexts. Argentina also claims the islands, which the United Kingdom does not accept. The page shows the Blue Ensign because it is the flag specific to the territory.

Meaning and symbolism

The Union Jack shows the link with the United Kingdom, and the blue field is the usual color of ensigns that are flown by British overseas territories. The coat of arms was designed to describe the islands: the supporters, a seal and a penguin, are animals found in large numbers on South Georgia, and the lion and motto express the territory's British connection. Details of the arms, such as the supporters, were chosen to reflect the islands' wildlife and their long history of scientific work.

History of the flag

Captain James Cook landed on South Georgia in 1775 and claimed it for Britain, naming it for King George III. South Georgia then became a base for whaling and sealing. Until 1985, the islands were administered as a dependency of the Falkland Islands and used a flag based on the Falklands one. After the Falklands War of 1982, in which Argentine forces briefly occupied the islands, the territory was separated from the Falkland Islands in 1985 and given its own arms and ensign.

The present flag dates from the years after the 1985 separation, when the arms were granted. The territory's population has never been permanent: whaling stations closed in the 1960s, and today about 30 people live there at any time, based at the research stations of the British Antarctic Survey and at King Edward Point.