Update: Royal Sovereign Trafalgar flag bought by museum

The flag flown from HMS Royal Sovereign at the Battle of Trafalgar has been saved for the nation by the North East Museums. One of only three surviving British flags from the epic 1805 battle between the English and Napoleonic navies, it sold at auction to a foreign buyer last year. The UK’s Minister of Culture placed a temporary export bar on the flag to prevent it leaving the country and giving local institutions the chance to acquire it.

Thanks to donations from organizations, including £400,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, North East Museums was able to raise the purchase price of £450,000 ($600,000) and secure this iconic emblem of Britain. They are now raising funds to create a permanent custom display for this huge flag at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle.

The flag has a specific connection to northeastern England. It is also known as the Collingwood Trafalgar flag after Vice Admiral Collingwood, commander of HMS Royal Sovereign and Newcastle upon Tyne native. He was just 13 years old when he enlisted in the British navy in 1761, and worked his way up the ranks, earing the rank of vice-admiral and serving as second in command of the British Fleet under Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Not only was Collingwood a local lad, but much of his crew was too. They were nicknamed the “Tars of the Tyne” because so many of them came from the Tyne and Wear county of northeastern England. Furthermore, they weren’t just fighting under this flag, they actually made it too. It is the only one of the three surviving Trafalgar flags that was handmade by the crew of the ship whose foremast it flew from.

The Union Flag will form the centrepiece of a new permanent display at Discovery Museum, Newcastle, that will celebrate an important regional and national figure and a significant moment in British history.

It will be located in a new section of the museum’s popular Story of the Tyne gallery, which showcases an extensive maritime collection, covering Tyneside’s shipbuilding industry, innovations in maritime technology, and one of the best ship model collections in the country.

The display will also tell the story of the local men who served in Nelson’s navy – there were over 500 ‘Geordie’ sailors at the Battle of Trafalgar.

* This article was originally published here