Two 100th birthday flags representing KC’s two previous commercial lives one on the River Dart, the other on the Rivers Medway and Thames.
From 1924 up to 1965 KC flew the house flag of the River Dart Steamboat Company Ltd. Here Chairman of the PSPS John Allen presents this flag adapted for the birthday to KC skipper Malcolm Pope.
In the Medway years from 1985 to 2012 we were encouraged to design our own house flag for Kingswear Castle Excursions Ltd. Eventually we settled on adopting the house flag of one time paddle steamer operators Cosens & Co which we felt kept a nice connection with South Coast paddle steamers of yesteryear. In this pic Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust chairman John Megoran, who ran the business throughout all the operational Medway years, presents the other flag.
In both cases the original house flags have been embossed to celebrate KC’s 100th birthday.
A jolly 100th birthday splash of colour.
KC also flies the defaced red ensign signifying that she is one of the Historic Fleet as defined by National Historic Ships UK.
Many will also remember that KC was one of the National Historic flagship winners in 2019 with the flag held up in this pic by her main skipper Rich Swinglehurst.
Here is a pic of KC flying our adopted house flag in the Medway years.
Here she is flying the EU flag for one afternoon only for a special event many years ago at Chatham.
KC hoisted the French tricolour for filming a sequence for “Around the World in 80 Days” starring Pierce Brosnan, Eric Idle and Peter Ustinov.
Kingswear Castle returned to service in 2023 after the first part of a major rebuild which is designed to set her up for the next 25 years running on the River Dart. The Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust is now fund raising for the second phase of the rebuild. You can read more about the rebuilds and how you can help if you can here.
John Megoran
