R.C. Payne wrote:
Mark Brader wrote:
Tom Anderson writes:
I think that's quite a nice idea. You might want to subdivide
further than by country, though - if, say, 90% of plaques are about
British people ... then the national flag isn't providing a lot of
information about those ones.

Ah, but the trick is to use the *correct* national flag. For Samuel
Pepys, the St. George's Cross; for Samuel Johnson, the Union Jack
without the red diagonal cross; for Samuel Palmer, the present version.

That could cause problems. For example, would you use pre- or post-
1800 Union Flag for Wellington? Then there are the really awkward
people like Alexander Graham Bell[1]. Would he have a Union Flag, a
defaced (Canadian) red ensign, or the Stars and Stripes (and in that
case, how many stars)?

The flags are not for the deceased, they are for the tourists, so you would
use current flags only - this would be a necessity, since a lot of people
don't want to see Swastikas all over London, and a quarter of the world used
to have a Union Jack flying over it anyway. You would use
English/Welsh/Scottish/Norn Iron flags instead of Union flags, again
maximising usefulness to (British) tourists. It wouldn't have to be one flag
only.