[BITList] Fwd: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] The last flag

[John Feltham]

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To: <india-british-raj at rootsweb.com>
Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] The last flag

The last flag

The Indian Express
Saturday , Aug 15, 2009

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/The-last-flag/502331

Here is the story of another flag, the Union Jack that was the last
to fly in India just before the country got its Independence. For
years, the photograph of the flag being brought down was marked
as 'classified' in Indian records, perhaps initiated by the British in
their last days as they did not want it to be used as a symbol of
their ouster. The photograph of the flag and its story was first
published in Soldering On, a coffee table book brought out by the
Defence Ministry to mark the 100th anniversary of its publication,
Sainik Samachar, earlier this year. Here is an excerpt from the
book in a chapter titled: 'Sun Sets on the British Empire'

As the sun set on the evening of August 13, 1947, the Union Jack
which had flown and fluttered since 1857 without a break, night and
day, atop the Residency in Lucknow, was brought down by the
caretaker, Warrant Officer Ireland. A small party of British Officers
led by Major General Curtis watched the flag come down and the
sun setting on the British Raj in India.

That night the British Sappers cut the steel flag staff of the Residency
from the base and pulled out its foundation. Then they re-cemented
the place, leaving no trace whatsoever of the flag pole on which for
190 years the symbol of British power had flown high without a break.
The Union Jack which was removed from the Residency was sent to
Field Marshal Auchinleck who sent it to George VI in England. This flag
and another British Flag which was brought down from the ramparts of
Fort William in Calcutta were consigned to the Museum in Windsor Castle.




ooroo

Bad typists of the word, untie.