When was the New England rampant lion first raised?

When I did my original research on the history of the new state movement in New England I stopped at the Second World War. I wasn't so much worried about the later period because key elements of that were in my living memory. Now I need to flesh it out.

All political movements use symbols to gather support for their cause or to encapsulate political messages. Those symbols become part of the visual and mental landscape of both supporters and opponents alike.

The Northern or New England New State Movement was no different. It used a variety of symbols to try to gather support. Here the first photo shows the New England rampant lion flag in colour.

This raised the question in my mind in my mind as to the the date at which the rampant lion flag was first raised. It had to be after the early 1930s since this was the date at which the Movement first adopted New England as the name for the whole new state area.

The next photo shows the flag being raised in 1962 at the Movement's new campaign offices in Armidale's Minto Building. By then, the flag was well recognised.

Part of the answer lies in a Sydney Morning Herald story of 18 October 1954 that I reported on in a A 1954 Sydney view of the New England New State Movement.

By this date, the golden rampant lion symbol was clearly established. However, the story also said that the Movement soon hoped to fly its own flag. Clearly the flag was not yet ready

So, on the evidence, we now have a possible date range of late 1954 to early 1955 for the first raising of the flag.