the British Antarctic Territory

The flag of the British Antarctic Territory was adopted on 21 April 1998. It is a white ensign used as both a civil and state flag, in proportion 1:2. The coat of arms was granted on 1 August 1963. Its torch symbolizes scientific research and discovery, the lion represents the United Kingdom, the Emperor penguin represents native wildlife, and the crest shows RRS Discovery, the vessel associated with early British Antarctic expeditions. Before this design, the territory used a blue ensign with the same arms from 1969, and earlier it was represented by the flag of the Falkland Islands Dependencies.