Flag of Jersey before 1981. Flag ratio: 3:5 The current flag is the first to be adopted officially. Unofficially, a plain red saltire had been used since at least the 1830s. However, French Admiralty charts show that Jersey was using the red saltire before 1783. In his
History of Jersey, Balleine suggests that the saltire had in fact referred to Jersey, and that some had interpreted the flag to mean Ireland. At that date, Ireland would have been written , and the book contains a different entry for . The flag was attributed to in 1757 by French charts. The use of the red saltire became more common during the
German Occupation of World War II, as the local population were not allowed to display the Union Flag in occupied territory. Although the heraldic symbols of Jersey were used by the Island's government during this time, all public buildings and landmarks (such as
Fort Regent and
Mont Orgueil) flew the
Flag of Nazi Germany.
Addition of the badge The move to a new flag was begun in 1977 with Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee. It was felt by many in Jersey that the flag was insufficiently distinctive to represent the island, A third influential body of opinion campaigned for the adoption of a banner of the three leopards (
leopard being the heraldic term for a lion
passant guardant), the island's heraldic device. The current flag can, therefore, be seen as a compromise between the various strands of opinion. Although the flag is flown in Jersey, the three leopards are much more widely used as a national symbol by the authorities and civil population alike. ==Ensigns==