NCAM bridges continents and centuries assisting in hunt for Governor General Earl Grey Banners

Cobourg, ON – May 16, 2024 – The Northumberland County Archives and Museum (NCAM) was delighted to host an international researcher from the United Kingdom today, assisting her in her hunt to rediscover historic banners linked to Governor General Earl Grey.

Researcher Hilary Calvert of Cambridge, England is on a mission to find a series of banners gifted to educational institutions across Canada in the early 1900s from students in the UK. 

Albert, 4^th Earl Grey was Governor General of Canada from 1904 to 1911. During that time, he sought to promote national unity and cohesion within the British Empire. As part of these efforts, Earl Grey spearheaded a program connecting youth between our two nations by asking his contemporaries in England to create and send him banners embroidered with the figure of St George. These banners were presented to select Canadian post-secondary schools to be hung where students would see them every day.

Earl Grey aimed to ‘match’ schools in England with similar secondary schools in Canada, and he hoped the banners would inspire friendship and understanding between the paired institutions.

The banners gifted to universities and colleges were professionally stitched with complex representations of St George, while banners created for secondary schools were simpler designs and understood to be handstitched by students.

Cobourg Collegiate Institute was presented a St George banner in May 1910 by Tynemouth High School in Northumberland, England. It hung in the school until 2015, when following CDCI West’s closure, it was donated to NCAM.

The banner is beautifully crafted with three crowns in the centre of the Shield, representing the Arms of the Tynemouth Priory. The Rose, Thistle, Fleur de Lys and Harp represent England, Scotland, France and Ireland.

Researcher Hilary Calvert’s interest in Earl Grey’s banners began almost twenty years ago, when a banner made by Mary Seton Watts was returned to England on loan for an exhibition of her work at Watts Gallery in Compton, England. Having researched as much as she could from Earl Grey’s correspondence, and with endless online help and encouragement from institutions throughout Canada, Calvert is delighted to now be able to travel across the country from Edmonton to Halifax – with stops in Guelph, Cobourg, Kingston, and Montreal – to see and record as many of the banners as she can.

Over the years, there have been a few attempts to locate the banners, each person adding to the number found. Calvert has located thirteen banners in total, but from her research, she suspects there are still many more school banners unaccounted for and would be grateful to hear of any others. Many of the banners have survived for more than one hundred years, either hung unattributed on library walls or stored in museums and archives across Canada.

Calvert’s cross-country tour coincides with Museum Month and International Museum’s Day. This year’s theme, “Museums for Education and Research,” underscores the pivotal role of cultural institutions in providing a holistic and educational experience.

Community members interested in viewing Earl Grey’s banner are invited to please contact the NCAM team to schedule an appointment. For more information about NCAM, please visit Northumberland.ca/ NCAM.

Photo attached

(Left to Right): Katie Kennedy (NCAM Curator); Hillary Calvert; Denis Calvert; Abigail Miller (NCAM Archivist); Brian Murphy (Cobourg District Historical Society Membership Executive)