Cape Colony Coat of Arms Flags

The adoption of the arms was a belated response to a British government request, in 1869, for a design for a flag badge to identify the colony. The laying of the foundation stone of the new parliament building in May 1875 was considered as a good opportunity to introduce it. A Cape Town attorney with a keen interest in heraldry, Charles Aken Fairbridge (1824-1893), was accordingly asked to design arms for the Colony.

The foundation stone of the colonial parliament was laid on 12 May 1875. According to the Cape Argus newspaper, "among the conspicuous features of the spectacle was the new colonial flag, hoisted aloft above the cornerstone, with the heraldic shielding, surroundings and mottoes blazoned on the Union Flag and the Royal Standard floating in the breeze from the loftiest flagstaff in the centre".

Queen Victoria formally granted the arms by Royal Warrant a year later, on 29 May 1876.

After the Cape became a province of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the provincial administration took over the arms. They were used as provincial arms until the Cape was divided into three smaller provinces in 1994. Wikipedia