As many know, I had a vicarious frisson from the ex officio post of Admiral of the Port of London which I held in 2023 and 2024 as Lord Mayor. The post is ancient and today honorific. In trying to find which ensign to fly, I found out that the Lord Mayor is required to design his own and the continue to use it during the rest of his life. This had not been done for well over a hundred years, so with a bit of cheek I restarted with the result below.

The ensign is clearly based on the City crest, with the cross of St Paul in the upper left, the various powered craft on the bottom left, the various sailing and oceanic craft on the upper right, and my crest in the bottom right. To my immense gratitude, my Company of Watermen & Lightermen had this created both as a large ensign, and also as a burgee. During the Mayoral year, the flag and burgee were flown on numerous occasions above Mansion House on Thames Day and on many vessels.

Before the Port of London Authority came into being, the Lord Mayor controlled the Thames from Staines to the Medway, and so we also recreated the Lord Mayor’s View of the Thames, where naturally the ensign and burgee were flown. This leads me to point out that the Lord Mayor was thus also clearly Admiral of the Fleet (river), and also the Walbrook, Tybrun, Effra, Westbourne, …

So I couldn’t have been more pleased when the City Livery Yacht Club asked me to become their Admiral, which I was delighted to accept, allowing me to continue to style myself ‘Admiral’.