This union flag, or standard, was used by Sergeant William Clifford of the 20th Hussars as an orderly to Field Marshal Sir John French during the Retreat from Mons in September 1914 and until French was replaced as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF in December 1915. Clifford requested the flag be sent home to his wife for safe-keeping.

In the photograph, taken in August 1915, French (below) is riding with his ADCs. The Sergeant behind with the lance and standard is believed to be Clifford, with an Indian cavalry escort behind.

Sergeant William Clifford who had joined the Army in 1908, was commissioned in the Worcestershire Regiment in December 1916. On his death in 1927, he was described as French’s ‘standard-bearer’.

Fascinatingly, in the archives is an Affidavit dated August 1919, relating to the flag where he states:

‘On or about the 2nd of August 1914 whilst a Sergt in the 20th Hussars, serving in the Staff of the Cavalry School at Netheravon, I was ordered by a telegram from the War Office to proceed to Southampton with six horses for the Commander-in-Chief and to take over duty as Orderly to General Lord French the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force… During the month of September 1914 I received from Captain (Freddie) Guest, A.D.C the flag now produced and marked by me thus:- W. CLIFFORD and hereby declare it is the original flag carried by me as Orderly to the C-in-C during the retreat from Mons and on all official occasions during the whole time General French was Commander-in-Chief of H.M. Forces during the war.’