The first pamphlet published by the Jamaican Military Museum is something to welcome. It is an enthusiast’s study by the veteran broadcaster Merrick Needham who has found a topic to be enthusiastic about. While clearing a storeroom at Up Park Camp the Jamaica Defence Force re-discovered an old-fashioned flag. This study seeks to explain what this flag was and why it is a significant relic from Jamaica’s military past. Readers are introduced to the British Army’s tradition of regimental standards, with separate Regimental and King’s (or Queen’s) Colours, the first of which bore the regiment’s own symbol while the second was a union flag with some variant of the regiment’s insignia embroidered on it.

The first pamphlet published by the Jamaican Military Museum is something to welcome. It is an enthusiast’s study by the veteran broadcaster Merrick Needham who has found a topic to be enthusiastic about. While clearing a storeroom at Up Park Camp the Jamaica Defence Force re-discovered an old-fashioned flag. This study seeks to explain what this flag was and why it is a significant relic from Jamaica’s military past. Readers are introduced to the British Army’s tradition of regimental standards, with separate Regimental and King’s (or Queen’s) Colours, the first of which bore the regiment’s own symbol while the second was a union flag with some variant of the regiment’s insignia embroidered on it.

A chapter on Jamaica’s post-1962 flags extends the pamphlet’s range. Not only will many readers be fascinated by the precise terms that define the nation’s flag – with the exact shade of green specified as “Emerald T8 17, British Admiralty Bunting Pattern” – but they will also be intrigued by a further six official flags. These not only include the Jamaica Coast Guard’s Ensign and the Defence Force’s War Flag, but also the Monarch’s personal flag as Queen of Jamaica and those for the Prime Minister, the Governor General and the Governor General’s spouse. Now we will have a better idea whose limousine has just driven past.

A practical set of advice describes when the nation’s flag should be displayed and how to care for it. These pages should provide an invaluable reference for any public office where the flag is flown. The booklet offers a fresh resource for school teachers either planning a class trip to the Military Museum or classes on the nation’s national symbols. Even in these cash-strapped times, school and public libraries will want to acquire copies. General readers should be interested too.

There is plenty to commend, particularly because this well produced pamphlet was edited and printed in Jamaica. It sets a high standard for the further informative studies that I hope will follow it. I will now watch to see how long it will take for “vexillology”, the technical word for the study of flags quoted here, to make it on to the question lists in the national spelling bees.

James Robertson is senior lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology, University of the West Indies, Mona.