Dear Editor,
I wonder if readers of SN noticed the recent death of the American Whitney Smith at the age of 76?
Mr Smith was by far the world’s greatest expert on flags. In fact he coined the name for the study of flags ‒ vexillology. In his home in Winchester, Massachusetts he had 11,000 books on flags, more than in the Library of Congress, the British Museum, the New York Public Library and Harvard University combined.
His card catalogue of flags involved the collection, presentation and description of every national flag that has ever flown. He knew more about flags than anyone has ever known.
In our 50th anniversary of Independence, it is good to see what he had to say about our flag. I quote from the last paragraph of his obituary in the Economist: “He was particularly proud of his design for the former British colony of Guyana, with its red diamond (for steadfastness), gold arrowhead (Amerindians and mineral wealth) and green background (verdure). There was, he said proudly, “ none other like it.’”
Yours faithfully,
Ian McDonald
