A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which that officer exercises command.
26-575: Rear-Admiral Hood Hanway Christian (23 July 1784 – 31 August 1849) was a British naval officer who reached the rank of Rear-Admiral. He fought in several naval engagements during the Napoleonic Wars between 1800 and 1814. Later he was Commodore of the naval squadron based on the Cape of Good Hope . Hood Hanway Christian was born at Hook Norton , Oxfordshire, England on 23 July 1784, son of Admiral Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian and Anne Leigh. He
52-525: A NATO ranking code of OF-7. The equivalent rank in the British Army and Royal Marines is major-general ; and in the Royal Air Force it is air vice-marshal . The rank originated in the 17th century, in the days of naval sailing squadrons when each naval squadron would be assigned an admiral as its head. The admiral would command from the centre vessel and direct the activities of
78-458: A broad pennant , not a flag), and army and air force generals in command of commands or formations also have their own flags, but are not called flag officers. Base commanders, usually full colonels , have a pennant that flies from the mast or flagpole on the base, when resident, or on vehicles that carry them. A flag officer's rank is denoted by a wide strip of gold braid on the cuff of the service dress tunic, one to four gold maple leaves over
104-478: A crossed sword and baton, all beneath a royal crown, on epaulettes and shoulder boards ; and two rows of gold oak leaves on the peak of the service cap. Since the unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968, a flag officer's dress tunic had a single broad stripe on the sleeve and epaulettes. In May 2010 the naval uniform dark dress tunic was adjusted—exterior epaulettes were removed, reverting to
130-498: A flag. For example, a Commander-in-Chief Fleet flies an admiral's flag whether ashore or afloat and is a "flag officer". The chief of staff (support), a rear admiral, is not entitled to fly a flag and is an "officer of flag rank" rather than a "flag officer". List of fleets and major commands of the Royal Navy lists most admirals who were "flag officers". A flag officer's junior officer is often known as "Flags". Flag Officers in
156-406: Is an Admiralty position usually held by a senior (and possibly retired) "full" admiral. Flag officer Different countries use the term "flag officer" in different ways: The generic title of flag officer is used in many modern navies and coast guards to denote those who hold the rank of rear admiral or its equivalent and above, also called "flag ranks". In some navies, this also includes
182-402: Is still widely used to refer to any officer of flag rank. Present usage is that rear admirals and above are officers of flag rank, but only those officers who are authorised to fly a flag are formally called "flag officers" and have different flags for different ranks of admiral . Of the 39 officers of flag rank in the Royal Navy in 2006, very few were "flag officers" with entitlement to fly
208-730: The Army ; commodores , rear admirals , vice admirals and admirals in the Navy ; and air commodores , air vice marshals , air marshals and air chief marshals in the Air Force . Each of these flag officers are designated with a specific flag. India's honorary ranks ( five star ranks ) are field marshal in the Army, Marshal of the Indian Air Force in the Air Force and admiral of
234-476: The Canadian Armed Forces , a flag officer ( French : officier général , "general officer") is an admiral , vice admiral , rear admiral , or commodore , the naval equivalent of a general officer of the army or air force. It is a somewhat counterintuitive usage of the term, as only flag officers in command of commands or formations actually have their own flags (technically a commodore has only
260-497: The river and began an intense bombardment of Flushing that lasted until the town surrendered on 15 August. Christian was Captain of the Iris from May 1811 to 1813. This 38-gun ship was part of the squadron that assisted Spanish patriots on the north coast of Spain in 1811 and 1812. In 1813 he captured three American ships sailing under letters of marque: the 12-gun Union and the 6-gun Cashier and Price . The American schooner Price
286-679: The Governor of Mauritius, General Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole , and with the Lieutenant-Governor of Eastern Cape of Good Hope, Sir Richard Bourke . In 1826 Christian impounded the Portuguese merchant ship Gratidao , leading to a court case and much correspondence. While he was Commodore the British were attempting to establish a settlement at Mombasa , and were negotiating a treaty with King Radama I of Madagascar to suppress
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#1732797170488312-623: The Navy and Coast Guard). Non-naval officers usually fly their flags from their headquarters, vessels, or vehicles, typically only for the most senior officer present. In the United States all flag and general officers must be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate . Each subsequent promotion requires renomination and re-approval. For the Navy, each flag officer assignment
338-518: The Royal Navy are considered as Rear-Admirals and above. Equivalent ranks in the British Army and Royal Marines are called general officer rather than flag officers, and those in the Royal Air Force (as well as the rank of air commodore ) are called air officers , although all are entitled to fly flags of rank. Captain was the highest rank in the United States Navy from its beginning in 1775 until 1857, when Congress created
364-564: The United States Army , Air Force , and Marine Corps , the term "flag officer" generally is applied to all general officers authorized to fly their own command flags —i.e., brigadier general , or pay grade O-7, and above. As a matter of law, Title 10 of the United States Code makes a distinction between general officers and flag officers (general officer for the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force; flag officer for
390-607: The fleet in the Navy. A similar equivalence is applied to senior police officers of rank Deputy Inspector General (DIG) , Inspector General (IG) , Additional Director General (ADG) and Director General (DG) . In the United Kingdom, the term is only used for the Royal Navy , with there being a more specific distinction being between a "flag officer" and an "officer of flag rank". Formerly, all officers promoted to flag rank were considered to be "flag officers". The term
416-415: The modern age, with the rank of rear admiral the most junior of the admiralty ranks of many navies. Prior to 1864 the Royal Navy was divided into coloured squadrons which determined career path . The command flags flown by a rear-admiral changed a number of times during this period. The Royal Navy rank of rear admiral should be distinguished from the office of Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom , which
442-420: The rank of commodore . Flag officer corresponds to the generic terms general officer , used by land and some air forces to describe all grades of generals, and air officer , used by other air forces to describe all grades of air marshals and air commodores . A flag officer sometimes is a junior officer , called a flag lieutenant or flag adjutant , attached as a personal adjutant or aide-de-camp . In
468-723: The reduction of Flushing in 1809 during the Walcheren Campaign . The Heroine was part of a squadron of ten frigates under the command of Captain Lord William Stuart . On 11 August 1809 this squadron sailed up the Western Scheldt under a light wind, suffering minor damage from the shore batteries of Flushing and Cadzand. Two men were wounded on the Heroine . On 13 August seven 74-gun line-of-battle ships under Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Strachan entered
494-515: The slave trade. His correspondence also covers these activities. On 28 June 1838 Christian was appointed Rear-Admiral of the White. He died on 31 August 1849 at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Rear admiral (Royal Navy) Rear admiral ( RAdm ) is a flag officer rank of the Royal Navy . It is immediately superior to commodore and is subordinate to vice admiral . It is a two-star rank and has
520-482: The sleeve ring and executive curl -rank insignia used by most navies. commodores ' uniforms display a broad stripe, and each succeeding rank receives an additional sleeve ring. There are no epaulettes on the exterior of the tunic, but they are still worn on the uniform shirt underneath. In the Indian Armed Forces , it is applied to brigadiers , major generals , lieutenant generals and generals in
546-430: The squadron. The admiral would in turn be assisted by a vice admiral, who commanded the lead ships which would bear the brunt of a naval battle. In the rear of the naval squadron, a third admiral would command the remaining ships and, as this section of the squadron was considered to be in the least danger, the admiral in command of the rear would typically be the most junior of the squadron admirals. This has survived into
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#1732797170488572-528: The temporary rank of flag officer, which was bestowed on senior Navy captains who were assigned to lead a squadron of vessels in addition to command of their own ship. This temporary usage gave way to the permanent ranks of commodore and rear admiral in 1862. The term "flag officer" is still in use today, explicitly defined as an officer of the U.S. Navy or Coast Guard serving in or having the grade of admiral, vice admiral, rear admiral, or rear admiral (lower half), equivalent to general officers of an army. In
598-526: Was appointed Captain of the 42-gun Owen Glendower , and sailed in that frigate to South Africa where he took up his post as commander-in-chief of the Cape of Good Hope Station . A collection of his papers held at the National Maritime Museum , Greenwich is mostly concerned with his activities on that station. It includes correspondence with his captains, Charles Richard Dyke Ackland on HMS Helicon and Sir David Dunn on HMS Samarang , with
624-492: Was captured on 15 April 1813, and the prize money was shared by agreement with the captain and crew of HMS Surveillante . With the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, Christian disappears from the records for the next decade. In 1824 John Filmore , acting Captain of HMS Owen Glendower and captain of the African Station, resigned due to debilitating fever and returned to England. On 16 September 1824 Christian
650-697: Was commissioned as a Royal Naval officer around 1792, at the age of eight. He commanded a division of boats at the Siege of Genoa on 25 January 1800, and for this was promoted to Lieutenant. In October 1804 he was made an Acting Captain for his service in the Bay of Bengal . He commanded the Arrogant from January to March 1805. On 21 March 1805 he was promoted to Commander. He commanded the Sir Edward Hughes from April 1805 to January 1806. On 30 January 1806 he
676-483: Was made Captain at the age of twenty two. On 29 February 1808 Christian married Harriet Shute, daughter of Samuel Shute, in Bath Abbey . They had three daughters and four sons. Their oldest son, Thomas Hompesch Christian (1810 - 1858), also joined the navy and reached the rank of commander. Christian commanded HMS Heroine (formerly Venus ) from March to November 1809. In this 32-gun frigate he participated in
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