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Harbour Authorities, United Kingdom

Theoretically Port Authorities should not have had a defaced ensign, but two were issued with warrants in the 1880s, probably through confusion between Public Offices, which did qualify, and Public Bodies, which did not. One was for the Humber Conservancy Board Red Ensign and the other for the MD&HB Red Ensign. More prestige was attached to a Blue Ensign than a Red Ensign and it so happened that in 1911 one of the members of the Board of Admiralty had an interest in the MD&HB. It was arranged that MD&HB would be issued with a warrant to replace its Red Ensign with a Blue Ensign, and to make the manoeuvre a little less obvious, a warrant for a Blue Ensign defaced with its badge was first issued to the Port of London Authority. The following year the MD&HB warrant was changed, and the new Blue Ensign was first hoisted in a ship named Prince Louis of Battenberg. The real Prince Louis of Battenberg was a senior naval officer married to a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria.
[Public Record Office ADM 1/27926]

David Prothero, 3 June 2001

Aberdeen Harbour Board
Mersey Docks and Harbour Company

See also:

Aberdeen Harbour Board

by Rob Raeside

I have never seen a good picture of this ensign, but the badge seems quite simple; a broad, slightly curved, upward pointing chevron.
Granted 4th July 1974. The ensign is worn at shore offices and by pilot boats and harbour craft, but no longer by any named vessel. The chevron defacement was designed by Albert Brebner of Edinburgh. The ensign is also part of the Board's achievement of arms (held by the dexter supporter) matriculated by the Lord Lyon King of Arms in 1985.
Source: [Malcolm Farrow's "Colours of the Fleet"]

David Prothero, 3 June 2001

Mersey Docks and Harbour Company

by Rob Raeside

The badge is the letters M D H B in gold/yellow surrounded by a garland probably of the same colour, although in the 1917 National Geographic Magazine the badge is silver/white. The initials date from the time when it was called the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and have not been changed. Granted 15th October 1912.
David Prothero, 3 June 2001

Flaggenbuch (1939) also shows the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company badge with silver/white letters and garland.
Ivan Sache, 4 June 2001