THE VIERKLEUR AND THE UNION JACK IN THE )880-1881 WAR BETWEEN THE ZUID-AFRIKAANSCHE REPUBLIEK AND BRITAIN

Abstract

The British occupation of the Cape in 1795 was responsible for the Afrikaner's first encounter with the British flag and all the ideas connected to it. The flag that was hoisted over the Castle in 1795 was however not the Union Jack.' The latter only came into existence in its present form in 1801, with the incorporation of Ireland into the United Kingdom, when it was described as follows in the Royal Proclamation of 1 January:

... that the Union Flag shall be Azwe, the Crosses Saltire of St Andrew and St Patrick Quarterly, per Saltire counterchanged Argent and Gules; the latter fimbriated of the second, surmounted by the Cross of St George of the third, fimbriated as the Saltire'.