Megan

Sounds like a fascinating project, Antonio. Off the top of my head, France has the "Insigne des blessés militaires" - instituted 11 Decemeber 1916 as a ribbon only award consisting of a small red star on a white, blue, yellow, and red ribbon. That's only worn until a campaign medal is issued for the campaign in which the wound was received, then the star should be pinned to that ribbon instead. However, unofficial "wound medals" are popular and even tolerated in uniform... and 100 years after it was instituted - 17 August 2016 - the French created a War Wounded Medal using the same ribbon, with the medal being a red-enamelled star in a gold wreath of oak and laurel leaves. Got a stack of marking to do but I shall ferret around some more... only 31 more countries to go! Or 30, seeing as you have already attended to the Spanish one!

Magic - thank you, Archie! It's going to be very difficult to spend today marking student work when I know these goodies are here waiting for me!

Oh, Archie, you darling!

Well, you were a police officer... the habits stick! The UK does Mothering Sunday earlier in the year. The origins of that are fascinating. The 'mother' in question is your ; 'mother church' - the one where you were baptised. It was the one time that people who were in service got to go home. In times when people didn't travel much, the rest of your family was likely in the same village you were born and grew up in, so you got to see them as well. Nothing to do with greetings cards and taking Mum out to lunch! A;though being one I do approve of taking Mum out to lunch! To get back to more interesting things like medals, the Ciskei Defence Force rated the Sandile Medal above the Cross for Bravery, did they?

Venda Defence Force Gallantry Cross Gold Venda Defence Force Gallantry Cross Silver (found one online but poor quality!) Venda Defence Force Distinguished Service Medal Gold Venda Defence Force Distinguished Service Medal Silver (the one I found online is a) not the right medal and b) poor quality anyway!) Venda Defence Force General Service Medal Not that there's a rush, I have plenty to be getting on with, not to mention that work is crazy busy right now, It's that daily medal that keeps me sane!

An improvement on my 'jiggery pokery' earlier in the thread!!! 🤓

Oh dear. Appears some people do not take their stewardship of history as seriously as they ought. Museums can be very casual - the British Museum in London has been plundered for years by a rogue member of staff and they've only just noticed! Worth asking if they did decent cataloguing and have photos of their own of the missing items that they could share. It's great that you are looking after your collection properly, Archie.

The Ciskeian authorities certainly believed in being prepared, didn't they? Huge orders of awards that (thankfully) were never awarded. Now to figure out where to put them, the Consolidated Order of Precedence of 11 March 2005 quite naturally didn't bother with things that never got awarded! Great to see them, however, thank you Archie.

Lovely....

You're welcome. And thanks... if you do come across ANYONE's regulations for their Orders, Decorations, and Medals, please let me know. Nice badge, by the way.

The link doesn't work because it is to someone's (yours?) C drive! You do not want us yahoos rooting around on your computer even if the link did work. You can upload documents on here if you wish to share it. Have you come across any regulations for Benin's Orders, Decorations, and Medals in your travels? That's what really interests me...

Had to resort to some jiggery-pokery as the only image I had was on the wrong ribbon, but here's the Chief of the Ciskei Defence Force Commendation Medal. It was instituted in 1992 and awarded in a single class to all ranks for service commended by the Chief of the Ciskei Defence Force. It was discontinued on the reabsorption of the Republic of Ciskei into South Africa on 27 April 1994. The medal is bronze, 38mm in diameter. The obverse depicts the eagle emblem of the Ciskei Defence Force within a double circle and the inscription CHIEF C.D.F. COMMENDATION. The reverse bears the arms of the Republic of Ciskei. The ribbon is yellow with a light blue edged white central stripe and dark green and red edges.

Gotcha, pretty unique mounting system. Thank you,

Was the rather unusual suspension correct?

Beat me to it, was just about to upload an image of that!

Beautiful beast - love the peacok feathers.

I certainly can!!! Thank you so much, Archie...I started on South Africa last year, ferreting around for whatever I could find, then you suddenly pop up with perfect timing and a deluge of information and images. Pottering alomg with a 'medal a night'but once the marking season is over I shall really have fun!

You're very kind, Archie. If you do come across better quality images of the other awards from Venda I'd be extremetly grateful.

I did, thank you... I knew what that was, I mostly wanted to show the image quality I'm searching for to put on the website. Your images on this thread are wonderful for identification purposes, so I know what I am looking for... 🤓

Right, so the original intention was a red & yellow ribbon for the Gold Stars and a red & white one for the Silver Stars, only somehow they got switched and they decided to stick with that? Fascinating tale... for the website I think I'll stick with 'colours as worn', but the backstory makes for interesting reading. Thank you for the insights. Guess I'd better get on with my marking, it's almost 9am here and I really ought to go to work. (Yes, I work from home, so that means moving into my corner and firing up the big machine - currently curled up with a laptop & my breakfast coffee.)

Morning, Archie - oh, goodie, looking forwards to it. As soon as 'marking season' is over, I shall revel in this!

I just found them, magic! So, which are the correct ribbons?

Please elaborate on the medals... for most, the only images I can find are rather small ones on Wikipedia.

Venda Defence Force Medal

I reached the Military Merit Medal on my site last night. May I ask if there was any change in insignia when the name was changed from the Chief of the SADF Commendation Medal in 1993?