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18
Aug 2024
The people who fly flags – who are they and why do they do it?
You see them now and then, poking above hedges or waving from garage roofs, like markers of the last outposts of life after the apocalypse.
The flags' meanings are self-explanatory – ‘I love Yorkshire’, ‘I’m proud to be British’, or ‘I respect the sacrifice of the war dead’ – but just who are the people who fly them, and why do they do it?
The answer, if the Stray Ferret’s non-exhaustive research is anything to go by, is that they are [spoiler alert!] exclusively good-humoured men, who are very willing to talk about their hobby. And most of them have also spent time in uniform.
Ex-merchant navy man Tony Boddy flies the Yorkshire flag at his home in Ripon.
Tony Boddy, a retiree living in Ripon, is typical. Originally from Rotherham, he went to sea at 17 and was in the merchant navy for four years, before becoming a police officer and then retraining to teach history at Ripon Secondary Modern School (now Outwood Academy Ripon) for many years.
He told us:
In the merchant navy we flew all the courtesy flags, and the ‘red duster’ [the red ensign of the merchant navy], of course.
Formerly a keen caravaner, his flagpole is a repurposed awning rail lashed to his front railings. He said:
We fly a Happy Christmas flag at Christmas, and we flew the Union flag for the Queen’s jubilee and the King’s coronation.
Our daughter-in-law is from the Philippines, so when she visits we fly the Philippines flag. And during covid, we flew a yellow quarantine flag, which is the one ships fly when there’s illness on board.
It keeps the neighbours entertained, especially the yellow one. It brightens things up a bit.
We haven’t had occasion to fly the flag at half mast – no-one’s died. Yet.
Former soldier Neal Senior often flies the Royal Engineers flag.
Not far away, the flag of the Royal Engineers – a regiment with close connections to Ripon – flies over Neal Senior’s house. He served with the Sappers for 11 years and often flies the regimental flag.
Each year, he flies the flag of the Falklands Islands from April 2 to June 14, marking the duration of the 1982 Falklands War, in which he served.
The rest of the time, he flies other flags for different occasions: Yorkshire Day, Remembrance Day, New Year’s Day and family birthdays.
He said:
It’s not political – it’s just a bit of fun. The neighbours love it, and people comment on them.
Our next-door neighbour recently moved here from Harrogate, and she told all her friends to look for the flag as a way of finding her house.
Ex-Royal Engineer Neal Senior with his regimental flag.
In Harrogate, Rod Rushworth has a similar approach to flags, which he’s been flying for the past 10 years.
Originally from Halifax, he was in the Royal Navy for 25 years, working in communications. He’s got a drawerful of flags, including a cross of St George (England’s flag), an Armed Forces Day flag, and “three or four” Poppy Appeal flags.
He used to have a taller flagpole, but it blew down in a gale, and he makes up for it by flying the white ensign of the Royal Navy from a smaller pole.
He said:
I just like watching the flag. People look at my flag to see which way the wind is blowing – it’s a very windy corner here.
Rod Rushworth's 'windy corner' of Harrogate.
Back in Ripon, David Taylor was also in the Royal Navy, but, he said:
I was an artificer apprentice, but the only thing I could do well was fail my maths consistently, so I came out after 12 months.
After going into the hotel business, he eventually retrained at the age of 40 and became a solicitor.
He started flying flags not long ago, after the housing development across the road had been built. He said:
The housebuilder had about four flags flying, but when they sold all the houses, the flags came down, so I asked what they were going to do with the flagpoles. They said they’d probably end up in a skip, so I asked for one of them.
Flags on a garden fence in Ripon.
It’s now securely fixed into the ground in his front garden, and has a pulley system borrowed from a sailing boat.
Uniquely among our flag-flyers, he wasn’t flying any flag on the day the Stray Ferret visited. He said:
I usually fly the Union Jack, but it’s worn out. I’ll fly it on occasions like the King’s birthday, so it gets quite a lot of use. I don’t do a colour party every night, so once it’s up, it’s up!
The wall-mounted option: a Yorkshire flag flies at a house in Knaresborough.
In spite of his service in the navy, he first got the idea of flying flags when he lived for three years in the United States, where, he says, the Stars and Stripes must be flown above any other flag.
As for why he does it, he said:
Despite the news in the papers, with idiots rioting, I’m proud of this country. We’ve got a lot of aspects in Britain to be proud of, and people shouldn’t be shy of displaying pride in this country.
It’s not about jingoism or tub-thumping.
According to a government guide to flying flags, any national flag or flag of a home nation or historic county, any flag of His Majesty’s armed forces, or the Armed Forces Day flag may be flown without permission.
With certain minor restrictions, others include the flags of employers and sports clubs, the NHS and Investors in People flags, the gay pride rainbow flag and others.
Echoing the American law, if two or more flags are flown from the same pole, any from the first group, for example the Union flag, must be in the superior position, i.e. above the others.
Legally, any other flags need consent. So in theory, any would-be pirates should apply to the local council before flying the jolly roger.
Try telling that to Mark Noble – he's been known to fly one.
Buccaneering Mark Noble.
He's is another flag-flyer who got the bug from the States. He said:
It all started about 14 years ago. I visited friends in America and brought back a Stars and Stripes. I had a giant parasol and it broke, so I thought ‘that’d make a great flagpole’. So I flew it on July 4 and sent them a picture.
Later, my daughter went over there for six months, so I flew the Stars and Stripes and tied a yellow ribbon round the flagpole until she came back.
Mark Noble has what could be Harrogate's only gold-tipped flagpole.
The only one of our cohort not to have spent time in uniform, Mark has had a career in the brewing industry and now sells local breweries’ real ales through his own venture, The Crafty Cask Man.
The broken parasol is long gone, and he now flies his flags from a rather superior-looking flagpole. He said:
I used to be a signwriter and I had a bit of gold leaf left. That’s probably Harrogate’s only gold-tipped flagpole.
I've got a flag for almost every occasion now. I fly a Yorkshire flag for Yorkshire Day, an English flag on St George's Day, a Welsh flag on St David's Day, and a Scottish flag on St Andrew's Day, and I put all the home nations' flags up when they play in the big football competitions.
I’ve got a Bavaria flag, a Coronation flag, a Real Madrid flag and a Cornish flag. Wherever you travel, if you go to the tourist information place, you can usually get a flag. I haven’t got an Olympic one though – it’s caught me out.
Mark has a whole crate of flags for different occasions.
Not only is Mark the only non-uniform 'flyer', his primary reason for doing it is not love of country. He said:
It’s nothing political – just a bit of fun. It’s not about being patriotic. I am proud to be British though, and proud to be Yorkshire too. I left the county for five years, but came back because I missed it.
Ex-Royal Signals soldier Chris Baines.
Just across the way, Mark’s neighbour Chris Baines fits the mould rather better. He served in the Royal Signals for 11 years and flies flags because “I like to be patriotic”.
He flies a Christmas flag at Christmas, a Union flag during the Olympics, a St George’s cross during the European Championships, and a Lest We Forget flag for Remembrance Day. He also flew a Ukrainian flag for some time after the Russian invasion.
He said:
I’ll probably put a Leeds United flag up for the start of the season and keep it up till we get a bad result. Then I’ll probably take it down so people don’t laugh at me!
His flagpole is securely cemented into his back patio. He said:
I had a cheap flagpole but it kept breaking, so I got a proper one a couple of years ago from Amazon for £25. That’s where I get my flags too – they’re not expensive.
This is where he and Alan Newband part company – Mr Newband is more particular about what he runs up the flagpole in his Knaresborough garden. He said:
My flags are military-grade. They’re not cheap. I’ve got past the stage of ‘how much?’. I’m still a Yorkshireman, but the flagmakers are only just up the road and they’ll make whatever you want.
Knaresborough man Alan Newband with the Yorkshire flag he hoisted to mark Yorkshire Day.
He’s referring to Flying Colours, the extraordinarily successful Knaresborough company that was established 30 years ago and has held the Royal Warrant as flag manufacturer since 2008.
Alan is currently flying the Yorkshire flag, but sometimes also flies the West Riding flag, which “is like the English flag, but offset like the Scandinavian flags, because the ridings came from the Norse”.
He may have "military-grade" flags, but like Mark, Alan was never in the armed forces. Most of his family was, but he declined “because I didn’t like being told what to do”.
He did follow in his parents’ footsteps, though, and joined the Scouts like his father (his mother was a Guide), and then moved on to the Venture Scouts, becoming a Venture Scout leader. So he too developed a fondness for flags while in uniform.
He said:
I’ve always liked flags. But one thing that gets me is people flying flags upside down. The petals on the Yorkshire flag are supposed to spell out a Y, so one goes at the bottom, but a lot of people don’t know that.
A lot fly the Union Jack upside down too. You see those people rioting and holding the flag upside down. They should learn a bit more about their own country before they start having a go at other people.
Technically, this flag probably needs planning permission.
As for why he always has a flag fluttering – or hanging, depending on the weather – above his woodpile, he seemed to speak for all his fellow flag-flyers when he said:
It’s alright, as long as you’re not doing anything offensive. It just makes life a bit more interesting.
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