Megan

Ciskei Police Insignia for Merit - 1981-1995 - awarded for meritorious or exemplary acts or 30 years of service.

Weird - the obverse of your medal looks like the reverse of the Indian Special Service Medal (Visesh Seva Padak). This medal is awarded for services rendered by the Armed Forces personnel under active service conditions or conditions akin thereto. The medal shall be awarded for minor, short duration operations. The obverse of that shows the usual Indian crest and it ought to have a clasp denoting the operation for which it was awarded. The ribbon is light blue with red edges. It was instituted on 3 February 1986. Not sure this is of much help, best I can come up with...

Magnificent! I'm still searching for images of some of these and you have found the actual medals!

Another place I haven't even started on yet.... there isn't even a Nauru section. Must do something about this [wanders off muttering...]

Fantastic - and ones I don't have images of yet! Maybe time to look at that section of the site.... so many medals, so little time!

Came across the Warrant for the Loyal Service Medal: Intelligence Services Loyal Service Medal 2005 Warrant.pdf

I'll look forwards to that article!

Thanks, Archie. Solved the lightbulb problem by calling a local handyman service who kindly came and fitted them for us. Felt a bit silly asking... but better that than falling over and hurting ourselves! Big Board meeting today. Last one until September. So more time for medals until then!

Hi Tracy - glad you found this of interest. Some of the Scandinavian monarchies have similar things but I've not delved into them yet. Maybe I should... (obviously, elsewhere on the board!).

Thank you... .I'll get that sorted out as soon as I can. Bit of a disaster of a morning. 2 light bulbs have failed and neither of us can reach to put in new ones!

Fascinating... where is this information to be found? I haven't even started on Ethiopia properly yet!

An army chef, perhaps?

Very nice - and in great condition. That collection of yours is getting to be quite magnificent, Greg.

Keen-eyed individuals who know their Kings and Queens of England (my dearly beloved knows a rhyme about them!) will notice that ONE monarch didn't have a Royal Family Order - Edward VIII did not get around to establishing one during his brief reign. Given the artistry in the creation of the things, even monarchs who are on the ball about establishing appropriate awards for their reign tend to take a couple of years to get a Royal Family Order out.

Books will survive, although prices may become prohibitive... one reason I advocate the PDF/priint-on-demand route for publishing and intend to use it for the stuff I'm writing.

One of the vast array of delightful unofficial medals that French societies and organisations issue, many of them truly beautiful, masterpieces of medallic art. Can be a nightmare trying to keep up with them! Thanks to No-One, one has been firmly nailed down!

Hi Tracy The first Royal Family Order was issued by George IV. Queen Victoria decided to institute the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert on 10 February 1862 instead (having not done anything since her accession in 1837) with a wider scope - it had 4 classes and was given to a wider circle of ladies, not just royal ones. It did not survive beyond her death, however, and every monarch since has created a Royal Family Order to give to their female relatives. Recipients can continue to wear the Royal Family Orders of former monarchs as well as the current one. The late Queen wore the Royal Family Orders of her father (George VI) and grandfather (George V)... but not her own! Camilla was wearing Queen Elizabeth's Royal Family Order as well as that recently presented by her husband. Apart from Edward VII (who chose a dark blue, red, and yellow ribbon), the badge - a painted miniature of the reigning monarch - has been mounted on a pastel ribbon, a different colour for each. The reverse of the badge shows the monarch's cypher. The colours are: George IV - white Edward VII - dark blue with red and yellow edges George V - pale blue George VI - pink Elizabeth II - yellow Charles III - pale green Haven't had time to add Charles' one yet, but he others can be seen at https://www.medals.org.uk/united-kingdom/united-kingdom016.htm

Successuve monarchs have given "Royal Family Orders" - essentially miniatures of themselves on a ribbon bow - to close female relatives. It's been a while but at last a Charles III version has been spotted, adorning the shoulder of Camilla at the State Banquet for the Emperor of Japan.

Thank you for your service in the cause of humanity.... and a handsome beastie, as well.

I have been using the Order of Precedence as laid out in Government Gazette vol. 477 Pretoria 11 March 2005 No. 27376 - Government notice No. 202 as the basis for the listings. I just like the way they tried to incorporate all the awards into a unified whole. However, when I do the ribbon charts I may do the homelands, etc. separately... what do you two think? So then you can choose which way to access the information. The OMSA Image Database has already been set up with pre- and post-1994 sections for South Africa, with the homelands listed separately under the pre-1994 section, and I shall stick to that when working on that (next up once East Germany is done!).

An excellent start.. good luck in finding the rest of the set.

Many civil servants (like the rest of the general population) don't know beans about medals... the poor commentary on recent ceremonial events proves that - coronation, D-day commemoration, Trooping the Colour, etc. It's always been that way, back in 1977 the Welsh Office was tasked with organising a Jubilee service in Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff. The directions from the Palace said that they had to arrange an appropriate guest list and issue the invitations, including the details of how medals should be worn. My father was at that time the senior civil servant in the Welsh Office. His response was, "Oh, my daughter knows about such things". He came home and disrupted my A-level revision by asking me to write the ceremonial protocols... ... In due course a note arrived from the Palace to say that of all the events organised, ours was the only one where no changes had to be made to the directions for wearing medals! No, I didn't get invited to the service - I was doing myPhysics A-level at the time!

Tears hair out.... OK, I think I have it now. Watch out for howlers on those pages on my website! And please do tell me if I have it wrong (same goes for everything else).

Thanks, Marco! Archie, do you agree? Head of the parliamentary mace is it? Well, parliamentary maces - as ceremonial objects denoting authority - developed out of the sort of mace mediaeval warriors swong around, only the fancy 'head' end of a ceremonial mace is actually the butt of a fighting mace, where you might have your lord's arms if you fought in his service, rather than the bit you bashed your enemies with! The traditional police tipstaff has a related heritage...

Battling with the Transkei Police Faithful Service Medal... so this should be a set of 3 medals (gold/silver/bronze) in a Type 1 (1976-1987) and Type 2 (1987-1994). Getting a bit confused with the ribbons. Do all the Type 1 medals come on a blue ribbon with a white central stripe? Or does the 30-year one have multiple white stripes? What changes (if any) were there in the medals themselves? Obverse seems to be the arms of the Republic of Transkei, reverse an aloe with the trilingual inscription VIR TROUE DIENS - FOR FAITHFUL SERVICE - YENKONZO ETHOBEKILEYO, with just the metal (and maybe ribbon) changing to reflect which one it is...