Some seven and half miles (12km) off the Suffolk coast, the Principality of Sealand is perhaps the world’s most famous micronation.
Founded on 2 September 1967 by the late Prince Paddy Roy Bates, Sealand occupies the former HM Fort Roughs.
And it has been the subject of an invasion, a song, a music video and even a Japanese manga/anime series.
The Sealand flag is split into three distinct segments by an ascending diagonal band.
It thus resembles several national flags – Congo, DR Congo, Namibia, St Kitts & Nevis, Solomon Islands and Tanzania.
However, it predates all but those of Congo and Tanzania.
According to Prince Michael, Sealand’s second head of state, his parents Roy and Joan designed the flag in the summer of 1967 and first raised it on 2 September 1967.
Michael, then aged 14, and his 16-year-old sister Penny also had a ‘little input’.
‘My father would describe it as red for Roy [and] black for his days in pirate radio (Radio Essex),’ said Michael.
Meanwhile the white line denoted ‘the path of virtue and purity we walk today … I am sure the latter was a little tongue in cheek’.
Sealand’s flag has never flown at the United Nations or Olympic Games.
However, mountaineer Kenton Cool did display it on the summit of Mount Everest in 2013.
‘We are immensely proud of Kenton Cool carrying it to the top of Everest,’ continued Michael.
‘My father would have considered him a “proper bloke”. There are many countries that have never achieved that.’
Alex Crouch with his Sealand flag
Author: Alex Crouch (Flag Institute accredited journalist, 2015/16)
