QE2: Collector raises rare flags in honour of historic visit

Sep 22 2007 by Staff Reporter, Liverpool Daily Post

Collector raises rare flags in honour of historic visit

A MARITIME lecturer raised two rare flags outside his home to mark the arrival of the QE2.

Gervase Stringer, whose hobby is flag collecting, picked out the Commodores Burgee which was flown on the QE2 in 1988 and a flag which sailed aboard the Queen Mary in 1936.

The pair were displayed from his 36-foot and 42-foot flagpoles in his garden on Channel Road, Blundellsands.

They are normally kept safely wrapped up in plastic sheeting, but Mr Stringer decided it was the perfect occasion to put them up.

Passengers from the QE2 would have been able to see the display as they travelled up the Mersey on their way to dock at Liverpool.

Mr Stringer, 77, said his passion for flags and maritime history had started in his teens.

“It began with my mother she ran a place called Flotilla House in Bootle, it was supposed to be where Winston Churchill visited.

“My mum bought the house after the war and it had an old flagpole.

“It came to VE day we got excited and got a Union Jack I was about 14 and I was given the job of lifting the flag. From then I got interested in flags.”

Mr Stringer, who lectured in maths for 33 years, now travels around the world with wife Marge, picking up flags wherever he goes.