LONDON & NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY CO.

David Prothero’s National Archives account gives 24 April 1923 for three flags: Harwich, a St Andrew’s flag with a red dragon’s left wing on a central white disc; Grimsby, a white star on a red pennant; and Scottish services, a thistle on a white shield on a red pennant. It dates the common flag with a distinguishing hoist emblem to 17 February 1932. Rosanoski notes disagreement with Haws and Brown and asks whether these were retained predecessor flags before later LNER designs. The Harwich disc differs from the Great Eastern flag; the Grimsby pennant’s shape and star position are unspecified.

Haws assigns L179 to Harwich, L180 to Grimsby and L181 to Scotland, the last retaining the North British funnel and shield. The later common flag distinguishes Harwich as L182 and Scotland as L183. Liveries initially survived nationalisation; Haws places stops after the initials. The Great Eastern crest and Great Central star carried into the LNER flags, although the text’s star reference is numbered L189.

L543 is blue with a white saltire, overlaid by a white, red-edged lens-shaped panel bearing red sans-serif LNER, the middle two letters larger. Dixon suggests the saltire refers to the London–Edinburgh connection.

The postcard version for former Great Central ships, dated 1923–33, adds an upright white five-pointed star edged red.

The postcard version for former Great Eastern ships, also dated 1923–33, has a red wing crest on a torse. It resembles the City of London crest, but the wing is plain red rather than bearing St George’s cross.

L546 is retained from Martins-Tuválkin’s postcard-based illustration.