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Devon and Cornwall Constabulary (United Kingdom)

[Devon and Cornwall Constabulary Ensign]

image by Russ Hall, 27 September 2011

Ensign of the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary

Ensign of the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary

On 8th September 2011 following an application made by Sergeant 3561 Russ HALL the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence granted a warrant authorising the Blue Ensign of Her Majesty, defaced with the badge of the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary in the fly thereof, to be worn on vessels owned, chartered or hired by the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary.
Russ Hall, 27 September 2011

I queried the word 'Constabulary' on the badge as they were re-named Devon & Cornwall Police early in 2010. In reply it was said that the image in the fly is that of a helmet badge which, for reasons of expense, will not be changed for some time; probably not until EIIR needs changing.
David Prothero, 3 October 2011

Does that mean that once they do change it, they'll have to apply for a new warrant? I would think that "the badge used by the Devon & Cornwall Police" would have been more practical here, but it may be that the authority in control of such warrants would rather not allow for uncontrolled change.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 4 May 2012

As I understand it the operative words on the Warrant are "...defaced with the badge of the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary in the fly thereof". The fact is that the words "Constabulary" and "Police" (in this instance) are referring to the same body, so the change in title is an irrelevance. None-the-less, when their helmet badge is changed and the word "police" used then, strictly (if not "pedantically") speaking, they should apply for a new Warrant - indeed (given who they are) they may choose to do so, however, it is unlikely in the extreme that anybody at the Ministry (or elsewhere) would challenge their right to continue to fly an ensign defaced with the new badge should they decide not to so reapply.
The same argument does not apply to the Royal Cypher (EIIR), since a change of monarch automatically means a change of cypher and the badge referred to remains the badge regardless.
Christopher Southworth, 4 May 2012