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The emblem of St. George is a red cross on a white background, and is part of the Union Jack Flag. Richard the Lion Hart, King of England in the 12th Century, adopted the emblem during the Crusades. The King’s soldiers wore it on their tunics to avoid confusion in battle.  
 
St George was a brave Roman soldier who was born in Cappadocia Turkey in the 3rd Century. His parents followed the Christian Faith, and he joined the Roman Army at age seventeen. When the Romans began to torture Christians he protested and was beheaded near Lydda in Palestine on 23 April, in the year 303. He became a popular martyr in England after the Normans, during an early Crusade saw him in a vision and was Victorious.  
 
Saint George is popularly identified with England and English ideals of honour, bravery and gallantry, but actually set foot in England at all. In 1222, the Council of Oxford declared April 23 to be St George’s Day and he replaced Edward the Confessor as England’s Patron Saint in the 14th century. In 1415, April 23 was made a national feast day.  
 
St George is also patron saint of scouts, soldiers, archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and field workers, riders and saddlers, and he helps those suffering from leprosy, plague and syphilis.  
 
In Brandon Manitoba St. George was celebrated by Anglican worship at the “Mission Church of St. George. It of course was constructed by volunteer labour as was the way in those days, and was a small building built on a Lot at the South East corner of Tenth Street and College Avenue that held the first service on December 29th 1905.  
 
The first Brandon settlers of 1880’s were enjoying a lifestyle similar to those back in Victorian England. This feature attracted more immigrants from eastern Canada and the British Isles. Brandon grew, and so did the congregation of St. Georges Mission.  
 
On July 26th 1909 a Resolution was presented to the Archbishop and passed. St. Georges Parish Church was officially formed with Reverend F. W. Walker as Rector. A full basement was completed on a building extension at a cost of $2,500. Unfortunately Reverend Walker, who was a young man, succumbed to Typhoid Fever in the Brandon General Hospital on September 20th 1910. By 1912 St. Georges Church was self-sufficient, and the building was fully paid for. Brandon’s population had more than doubled during the previous ten years.  
 
World War 1 was declared, and in 1915 St. Georges Church added another building extension. The War years were hard on its congregation with the loss of eighty members. Each year a few more men became eligible for Compulsory Wartime Service, causing many women to became “War Widows”, and left to raise their children alone.  
 
In 1920 St. Georges congregation considered some final improvements to their building, and the project was finally consecrated by 1925. In 1929 the congregation was very large, and funds were set-aside in a “New Church” Fund, to build a new Church of a more durable construction. A site was chosen at the North East corner of Eleventh Street and College Avenue.  
 
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 changed all that, people could not afford Church attendance, and many Churches had to amalgamate. After the War most of the Lots in the South End of Brandon were filled with Wartime houses, and a baby boom ensued. St. Georges purchased a permanent Rectory for their incumbent at 650 – 12th Street. A major development in the Anglican Church was when it was not referred to as the Church of England in Canada, but as the Anglican Church of Canada.  
 
In 1955 it was decided to build a new Church, and five hundred supporters at Barney’s Ranch House on the North Hill held a fundraiser dinner. The new Church was opened and dedicated at 1011 – 5th Street on February 6th 1957. On May 24th 1970 St. Georges held a special service to commemorate the “Burning of their Mortgage”.  
The former Tenth and College parish premises became the Emmanuel Church of Dr. Moffatt.  
 
St. Georges Church has had its ups, and downs over its last one hundred and four years. Today Reverend Jim Brown who has been at St. Georges since 1992 leads its congregation.  
 
Source: Brandon a City. G. F. Barker. A brief History of St. Georges Church. http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=St.+Georges+Anglican+Church+Brandon+Mb.&fb=1&split=1&gl=ca&view=text&latlng=6564276392977736495