Antique of the Month - Sailing Flag (Possibly used during WWII Dunkirk Evacuation
This month’s Antique of the Month from the Historic Johanna Brotch House is a bit unusual in that it’s not like those previously written about here, such as a maritime instrument or something similar. Instead, this month it’s…a flag! But this flag could be the most important and significant of all the antiques held in the Historic Johanna Brotch House. It may have a connection with the Dunkirk Evacuation of World War II.
I acquired it thirty years ago when I was serving in England. It’s officially called the “defaced Blue Ensign of the Little Ship Club” of London, a yacht club formed in 1926. The information about the club that follows is a summary taken from parts of the its website as found today
(https://littleshipclub.co.uk/).
One of the many functions of the club in its early days, in addition its pleasure yachting activities, was to regularly train members of the Royal Naval Supplementary Volunteer Reserve. This function became especially important in the late 1930s as Britain found itself getting closer to war with Germany but was poorly prepared. In recognition of how important this training activity had been and continued to be to the nation’s preparedness by providing another avenue of producing trained sailors, the British Admiralty in 1937, represented by the First Sea Lord, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield, reported to the club that the Admiralty had decided to officially give the club its own flag on behalf of the Royal Navy. It was a Blue Ensign with the club’s emblem on it (the addition of the emblem to the flag is called, in Britain, “defacing” the flag). As of today, this is the only time the British government has ever provided a provided a private entity with an official government flag to represent that private entity’s importance to the nation.
The conferring of this flag upon the Little Ship Club was soon to become monumentally significant. Only 2.5 years after the flag was officially conferred upon the club, the Royal Navy called upon its members for help. It was May 1940, in the early days of World War II, and nearly 350,00 British and other Allied troops in France were pushed back by the German Army to the beaches at Dunkirk, France. They were trapped with their backs against the English Channel with no way to escape. But for reasons discussed at length in history, Adolf Hitler chose to halt his forces instead of finishing off the British and Allies.
The British Royal Navy was immediately then ordered to undertake an emergency evacuation. Because it simply did not have enough vessels to get all the troops off the beach, the Admiralty called upon civilian vessels, including at least some of those at the Little Ship Club, to sail with the Navy (though to be sailed by Royal Navy personnel, not the ships’ civilian owners) across the English Channel to pick up the stranded troops. The operation – called Operation Dynamo - was a great success, beginning on 26 May 1940 and concluding just 10 days later on 04 June. The lives of the nearly 350,000 troops on the Dunkirk beaches were rescued, and, just as important, lived to fight again four years later when Allied forces invaded France on D-Day, 06 June 1944.
That is the overall history. Here now are more specifics of what is known about the Little Ship Club’s contribution to the Dunkirk rescue: (https://littleshipclub.co.uk/news/how-lsc-got-involved-dunkirk-little-ships). While the club states that almost no records were kept of any of the ships that participated in the rescue, I found in my very quick and limited research that this is not the case, that in fact A LOT of the ships are known. Maybe it is better here, then, to take what IS known about Little Ship Club vessels that participated, of which their website lists only two, though there were likely more. These two are especially significant in history. Here they are, taken directly from the club’s website:
Basil Smith, owner of the small motor cruiser 'Constant Nymph', went with his boat. At the time, he displayed the reticence characteristic of his generation; after the war, though, the story of his deeds emerged. Accounts in the Club's journal reveal a tale of considerable courage and determination in which Dr. Smith and 'Constant Nymph' brought some 900 men off the beach under continual enemy fire.
Even more thrilling is the story of Lieutenant-Commander Charles Lightoller, who took his personal motor cruiser, 'Sundowner', across with his son, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Commander Lightoller, who had been second mate of the RMS Titanic and had a distinguished career in the Navy during the First World War, had another son in the Royal Air Force who had given him some tips on avoiding (attacks on the water from aircraft)…'Sundowner' was machine-gunned and bombed by three enemy aircraft. Following the advice of his pilot son (on how to take) evasive action at the very last moment - practically waiting until the bullets were stitching a line up the sea towards him Commander Lightoller narrowly avoided being hit. Eventually, a Royal Navy destroyer showed up and drove off the enemy with an anti-aircraft barrage. 'Sundowner' subsequently took several hundred men off the beach.
Both Dr Smith and Commander Lightoller survived but others were not so fortunate. To this day, there is a tattered Club blue ensign hanging in a frame on the wall at the Club with the poignant legend: "Found on the beach at Dunkirk - owner unknown".
There are two important epilogues to this history. The first is that after the successful rescue (and possibly provided as late as 1967), every civilian ship that participated in the Dunkirk Evacuation (Operation Dynamo) received a flag, called the “Dunkirk Jack” from the British Government to display on their vessel identifying it as having participated in the Operation. The “jack” on a ship is a flag displayed on the bow (front). About that same time, in 1965, the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (composed of only those vessels that participated in the evacuation) was formed, however, there is no connection with it to the Little Ship Club of London.
The second important epilogue is that Charles Lightoller’s yacht Sundowner still exists, though according to Wikipedia apparently undergoing maintenance as late as 2022 at a shipyard in England. It had before this been part of the Margate Maritime Museum.
You can read more about the Dunkirk evacuation, the Little Ships of Dunkirk, Charles Lightoller, his yacht Sundowner, and his astonishing biography which includes his survival as the most senior officer of the sinking of the RMS Titanic here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_evacuation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ships_of_Dunkirk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lightoller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundowner_(yacht)
https://titanic.fandom.com/wiki/Charles_Herbert_Lightoller
Note there is also a great book about Charles Lightoller titled, “The Odyssey of C. H. Lightoller,” which is available for sale on Amazon.com. There was also a 2017 feature-length movie titled, “Dunkirk.” Here is a scene depicting Charles Lightoller leaving harbor on the Sundowner (name changed to Moonstone for the movie, plus it’s not the real Sundowner) for Dunkirk. Note at the 26 second mark, the actor playing Lightoller removes what appears to be the Little Ship Club’s defaced Blue Ensign from the dish plates being taken off the ship and keeps the Blue Ensign aboard. The flag also appears at the stern (back) from 1:40-1:44, though because the flag is not extended in the breeze it isn’t possible to see if the Little Ship Club emblem on the flag or not (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKUDfW2PZ9g).
NOW THE POSSIBLE CONNECTION OF THIS HISTORY TO THIS MONTH’S ANTIQUE FLAG
And so, what follows here is the possible, though not confirmed, connection of this important historical event described above with the flag at the Historic Johanna Brotch House in Bay View.
First, this flag is an original, hand-sewn defaced Blue Ensign that is identical to the ones of the Little Ship Club. The key part here is that it’s hand-sewn, which means its old. Modern examples exist today, but they’re printed on vinyl. The metal mechanical device on this flag that was used to display it is also old. This flag could easily be from 1937 and could also EASILY have been flying on one of the club’s ships that participated in the Dunkirk rescue. However, it likewise could also be from some time after the war and thus HAVE NEVER PARTICIPATED in Operation Dynamo. Nevertheless, any ships (and there were at least two from The Little Ship Club,” and most likely more) that participated in the Dunkirk rescue would -in all probability - have been flying these “defaced Blue Ensign” flags during that Operation.
Second, per one of the highlights in yellow above, one of these “defaced Blue Ensign” flags was actually found on the beach at Dunkirk.
Third, the official “Dunkirk Jack” presented by the British government to be displayed by ships used in the rescue, wasn’t authorized or manufactured until after Dunkirk, very possibly 25 years later. It’s the earlier defaced Blue Ensign, not the “Dunkirk Jack,” that would have actually been used by ships of The Little Ship Club of London at Dunkirk.
The key question is when was this particular defaced Blue Ensign flag, now displayed on the front parlor wall at the Historic Johanna Brotch House in Bay View, made? Before or after Dunkirk? I don’t know. It’s unknown. There are no dates on it. But…I haven’t researched it yet. That is going to take a long time, and I’ll be tackling it AFTER I’ve concluded my foray into presenting all aspects of “Bay View: Town of Lake CAPTAINS!” It’s actually an advantage to wait to the research as every day that passes means more and more information gets digitized. The longer I wait, the better the chance I’ll be able to source the flag to a ship and determine if it was or was not at Dunkirk.
As you can see from the photos, there is one identifying mark on the flag, a stencil, that reads, “N/W 30.” My guess, given that some other Dunkirk vessels are identified by the letters “ON” followed by numbers, is that “N/W 30” could likewise be a vessel identifier. Could the flag found on the beach at Dunkirk be similarly stenciled? If so, would that not lend credibility to this flag also have been on a Little Ship Club ship at Dunkirk since it is also stenciled? Were there any Little Ship Club ships identified in Dunkirk rescue records as “N/W 30”? I’ll let you know in the future what I find out!
POSSIBLY OF EVEN MORE SIGNIFICANCE
As mentioned, The Little Ship Club confirms that Charles Lightoller on his yacht Sundowner is documented to have participated in the Dunkirk rescue while he was a member of London’s Little Ship Club. As such, it is highly likely – though unknown – that another flag just like this one was flying on the Sundowner during the rescue. But if it was flying this flag, then what happened to it? We know that Charles Lightoller died in 1952, then his wife continued on sailing the Sundowner for many years. Was she a member of The Little Ship Club during this time or elsewhere? Then, at some point, the Sundowner left London.
Those that remember the 1960s and 70s recall that any kind of history and/or traditionalism was destroyed in these two decades worldwide. “Mod” was in. “Old” was out. People painted over woodwork and beautiful old Victorian homes were torn down in unbelievably high numbers. So, what are the odds that Charles Lightoller’s flag he sailed with at Dunkirk has also been destroyed? Or ended up in a basement or attic only to be found even more years later at a rummage sale?
Today we think, “Oh, no, that couldn’t have happened. People wouldn’t just cast something like this aside. Someone would have certainly known the history.” And yet, consider this. The beautiful solid oak cigar box, inscribed with his initials, “E.J.S.”, of the Captain of the RMS Titanic, Edward J. Smith, was found back in the corner of a closet by a distant relative in 2011, not even knowing what it was (https://www.titanicofficers.com/article_34.html). The violin famously played by the leader of the band of the Titanic as it sank, Wallace Hartley, and that he put in its case and strapped it to his body as he floated in the freezing Atlantic, that was found during visits out sinking site, and the violin subsequently returned to his fiancé who had given it to him, was found in an attic in 2004 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEF7oKs41aU). It had been passed down through many hands over the years, no one realizing its historical importance for decades. So, sure, it’s possible no one would have appreciated then the historical significance of Charles Lightoller’s defaced Blue Ensign – the one he sailed with at Dunkirk - from his days as a member of The Little Ship Club.
When I bought this flag, it was hidden back in a corner, almost obscured, in a flea market in England somewhere, my recollection is London, but I can’t be sure. Could it be Charles Lightoller’s flag from the Sundowner? If it is unknown what happened to it, then there is always the possibility this could be it. But right now, there is absolutely nothing to base that claim on. His name isn’t on it, nor his ship’s name, Sundowner. Could the Sundowner have been “N/W 30” as marked on this flag? Or perhaps “N/W 30” is a different Little Ship Club ship that participated in the evacuation? Until I research it, there’s no way to know. My opinion right now is it’s not likely, but not impossible, either. Without knowing what happened to Lightoller’s flag, theoretically anything is possible. Given the above examples of serious Titanic memorabilia having been cast aside only to be found decades later in corners and attics, you never know. I’ll keep you posted!
