page_title: Red Ensign
section_title: Newfoundland
hierarchical_section_title: Red Ensign / Flags based on the Red Ensign / Canada / Newfoundland
context_page_description: The Red Ensign or "Red Duster" is the civil ensign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is one of the British ensigns, and it is used either plain or defaced with a badge or other emblem, mostly in the right half.
  It is the flag flown by British merchant or passenger ships since 1707. Prior to 1707, an English red ensign and a Scottish red ensign were flown by the English and Scottish Royal navies, respectively. The precise date of the first appearance of these earlier red ensigns is not known, but surviving payment receipts indicate that the English navy was paying to have such flags sewn in the 1620s.
context_section_description: The Red Ensign with the Newfoundland great seal in the fly was considered the unofficial flag of the Dominion of Newfoundland from 1904 until 1931, at which point it was officially legislated as the Dominion of Newfoundland's "National Colours" to be flown as the civil ensign, with the Union Flag being legislated as the national flag at that time as well. The Newfoundland Red Ensign was then used as official commercial shipping identification until the mid-1960s. The badge in the flag consists of Mercury, the god of commerce and merchandise, presenting to Britannia a fisherman who, in a kneeling attitude, is offering the harvest of all the sea. Above the device in a scroll are the words Terra Nova, and below the motto Hæc Tibi Dona Fero or "These gifts I bring thee." The seal was redesigned by Adelaine Lane, niece of Governor Sir Cavendish Boyle in 1903.
caption: Newfoundland Red Ensign