Antigua & Barbuda

Today's the day ....................... to fly the flag

In these days of unreliable and unseasonably chilly weather, we like to fly a flag of somewhere that is hopefully a much warmer and clement place to be.  This is the flag of Antigua and Barbuda, a sovereign island country in the West Indies, lying where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean around latitude 17°N.

The design for the flag was the result of a competition held in 1966 anticipating the attaining of Independence on February 27th, 1967. There were over 600 entries, with Mr. Reginald Samuel winning the first prize of $500 for the best design. He had entered the very last minute before the deadline, and made the design in only about half an hour.  Mr. Samuel, now Sir Reginald Samuel is an Antiguan artist, sculptor, painter and art teacher.  

It may seem a bit random to choose this flag - and I suppose it was in a way.  It was, of course, one of the countries that came up on Worldle  recently - and so, as I usually do, I had googled it afterwards to find out a bit about it.  But it might very well have been a place that was mentioned in this house back in the 1860s.  John Mitchell, a grandson of the man who originally built our house, drowned at sea off Antigua when he was 21 years old ..........................