06/08/2026
NORTH EAST MUSEUMS SAVES TRAFALGAR FLAG FOR THE UK ..and now we need your help to create the permanent display it deserves.
🇬🇧 Rare Union flag from Battle of Trafalgar bought for £450,000
🇬🇧 £250,000 needed to create permanent display of flag in Newcastle
🇬🇧 Fundraising campaign continues – and now you can help
🇬🇧 Every £1 donated to crowdfunder appeal will be doubled.
North East Museums has acquired a rare Union flag – ensuring it stays in the UK – thanks to several very generous funders.
The flag was flown from the HMS Royal Sovereign, flagship of Newcastle-born Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
It was at risk of leaving the country forever, but an export bar was ordered by the Secretary of State. This gave UK institutions and individuals a chance to buy the flag and retain it for the public to enjoy.
The flag has been bought for £450,000 – its fixed price. It will cost an estimated £250,000 to create a new permanent display at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum about Collingwood and the North East’s incredibly rich maritime heritage.
We’ve already raised more than two thirds of our £700,000 overall fundraising target.
We are very grateful to the National Heritage Memorial Fund for providing a £400,000 grant to support the purchase and to our other generous funders, the Sir James Knott Trust, Foundation North East, XTX Markets, the Drapers' Charitable Fund and several other donors.
The Collingwood family – direct descendants of Vice-Admiral Collingwood – has also contributed to the fundraising campaign to save the flag and bring it to Newcastle, the city in which Vice-Admiral Collingwood was born on 17 September 1748.
🇬🇧 PLEASE SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN 🇬🇧
Today (6 Aug) we’ve launched a crowdfunder appeal – this is your chance to support the fundraising campaign and help create a permanent display of the flag. The Sir James Knott Trust will match every pound donated, up to £7,500. Please donate and spread the word.
Keith Merrin, Director of North East Museums, says:
“It is wonderful to have acquired this rare and historically significant flag to ensure it remains in the UK and specifically in North East England which was home to Admiral Collingwood and many of his crew.
“Collingwood is a popular figure in the North East but perhaps isn't given the national hero status that he and his crew deserve.
“Our fundraising continues so that we can create a permanent display with the flag as the centrepiece at Discovery Museum in Newcastle where it can be enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
“If you would like to contribute to the fundraising appeal please visit our appeal page.”
Susan Collingwood-Cameron, great, great, great niece of Vice-Admiral Collingwood, says:
“As a great, great, great niece of Admiral Lord Collingwood I am excited to hear that the Union Flag flown from his flagship, H.M.S. Royal Sovereign, at Trafalgar is coming to Newcastle.
This flag is said to have been made by sailors on board the ship, many of whom came from Tyneside and were affectionately referred to by him as his ‘Tars of the Tyne.’ It will be a tribute to them, and the important role they played, in one of our greatest moments in history. There may well be descendants of their families still living in the area.”
🇬🇧 A CHANCE TO SEE THE FLAG 🇬🇧
Our goal now is to create an engaging permanent display for the Trafalgar Flag. But we are also planning a temporary display of the flag at Discovery Museum in autumn 2026, to coincide with Trafalgar Day commemorations – all details to be confirmed. Stay tuned!
