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Scheveningen (The Netherlands)

Den Haag municipality, Zuid-Holland province

Last modified: 2018-12-15 by rob raeside
Keywords: scheveningen |
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Scheveningen village Shipmate Flagchart :  http://www.flagchart.net See also:

Scheveningen village

Description villageflag of Scheveningen: blue with three white herrings, paced on top of each other, directed towards the hoist, placed at flagcenter over the full flagheight; each herring with a three-leaved yellow crown, floating over the head.
adoption date unknown.

The secretary of the High Council of Nobility (Hoge Raad van Adel) wrote in 2008 (I translate this from Dutch, and I hope I make no mistakes in English):
"In 1984 Scheveningen celebrated its 700th birthday and one of the festivities was the launch of the destroyer Hr. Ms. Scheveningen (M 855).
For this ship an emblem was foreseen with two crossed herrings with the white stork of The Hague. This caused a lot of unrest among the local population, that considered the coat of arms of the (extinct) family De Huybert as 'the coat of arms of Scheveningen'.
The description of this is: in azure three silver herrings swimming to the right; above the head of each herring a crown of gold. (Right being heraldic right, left to the viewer.)
Letters were published in several newspapers and protest signatures were collected. There was even a question in Parliament. This led the College of Mayor and Aldermen of The Hague to ask the municipal council to decide that the De Huybert coat of arms was to be recognized as the (village) coat of arms of Scheveningen (council proposal 136 of 23 March 1984).
It is stressed that it is not an official municipal coat of arms, as Scheveningen is a part (and has always been a part) of the municipality of The Hague. It was to answer to a broad feeling among the population of Scheveningen that this coat of arms was always 'their' coat of arms. Even the emblem of the ship was changed shortly after by the Minister of Defence, mr. J. de Ruiter, with decision D 84/236/41010 of 24 April 1984."

Translated from a discussion thread on  http://www.scheveningen-nu.nl/yabbse/index.php?topic=1742.0 . The three herrings were already mentioned in a book from 1847.
For the most important event in Scheveningen "Vlaggetjesdag" (Flag Daym English version). In the Photo's 2004 you can see the prime minister raise the flag of Scheveningen.
Maxim van Ooijen, 4 Feb 2009


Scheveningen old flag

[Scheveningen old flag] by Jarig Bakker, 10 Aug 2003

Scheveningen is an old fishing village, part of Den Haag and famous bathing resort (see f.i. the Kurhaus).
There was an older flag in use.
Description: three equally wide horizontal stripes of red, white, and green.
This village flag is no longer in use, but was in former times found on fishing boats. On the bow of fishing pinks (one of which took Prince Willem Frederik, later king Willem I from England to Holland) two rectangles were often painted in the village colors. The flag was mentioned in the book of van Lennep and Ter Gouw "De Uithangteekens", 1870, p. 199.
The "Exploitatiemaatschappij Scheveningen" did not reinstate this flag, but instead chose a white-blue flag with in the center the Scheveninger Coat of Arms (1961). It was stated that these colors were chosen because they formed a combination, which according to tradition were the typical Scheveninger colors. We (that's Sierksma) know nothing about that!
Source: Sierksma's Nederlands Vlaggenboek, 1962 [sie62]

Based on Sierksma's remarks and on Ralf Hartemink's observation:
"The arms were designed at the beginning of the 20th century. The arms are not historical, Scheveningen always belonged to The Hague, so there are no historical seals or images for the village. The arms indicate the importance of fishing for the local
economy and are most likely based on the arms of Enhuizen."
it doesn't seem to be worthwhile to include that exploitationflag on FOTW-ws.
Jarig Bakker, 10 Aug 2003