Megan

In the picture on the right end of the note, King Charles appears to be wearing the mantle of the Order of the Garter.

If you don't want to wade through the entire ministerial order, there's a summary here: https://www.ukrmilitary.com/2022/12/mou-new-medals.html

Which, of course, I found AFTER I'd waded through the entire military order, of course!

Brilliant, that was quick, Antonio!!!

As of November 2022, the awards issued by the Ukranian Ministry of Defence are: -

• Cross of Special Merits
• Decoration "For Exemplary Service"

• Iron Cross

• Knight's Cross

• Military Cross

• Cross of Valour

• Medal "For Wounds"

• Cross of Honour

• Medal "Golden Trident"

• Medal "For Strengthening Defence Capability"

• Star of Military Brotherhood"

• Medal "Defender of Ukraine"

• Medal "For Defence Assistance"

• Cross of the Land Forces

• Corss of the Air Force
• Cross of the Naval Forces

• Cross of Special Operations Forces

• Cross of Territorial Defence Forces

• Cross of Logistics Forces

• Cross of Support Forces

• Cross of Medical Forces

• Cross of Airborne Assault Troops

• Cross of the Communications and Cyber Security Forces

• Cross of Missile Troops and Artillery

• Cross of the State Special Transport Service

• Medal "Warrior-Peacemaker"

• Medal "Service Veteran"

• Medal "20 Years of Conscientious Service"

• Medal "15 Years of Conscientious Service"

• Medal "10 Years of Conscientious Service"

Most of these are completely new, even those previously existing have been redesigned!

I'm off on a cruise to the Canaries over Christmas & New Year. Given the amount I had to pay for the drinks package I expect to be half-pickled for most of the trip. Gotta get one's money's worth, after all. I am taking a laptop, but no idea how good the wifi will be.

Medal for Meritorious Acts, instituted in 1917 & awarded in 3 classes for service to the state, acts of courage, lifesaving and long service. This is Class 2.

In essence, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has revamped their entire awards system, only keeping some of the existing ones, changing others, and introducing a whole lot more with an emphasis on actual 'warfighting' awards, something they've been historically light on.

I only have 2 days before I go away, but will try & amend my website pages to reflect the changes (or at least make a start), a proper write-up here may have to wait until the new year.

hint: Google translate isn't too bad at Ukrainian if you're struggling. And if you are after pictures, there are sketches of all the awards at the end of the document, just keep scrolling down!

I prefer actual photos for my website, so everyone keep your eyes out for them, please!

Oh my - and just when I am about to go on holiday and won't have access to my website! This always happens just when I am about to go away

Thanks for this, I shall see how much I can read before I leave. And bookmark the rest for when I get back,

Great images, Emmanuel.

The medal 'Faith in the Cause' was created to honour members of the Colombian Army who have been distinguished for their outstanding service, as well as to honour foreign military members who have earned the gratitude of the national army of Colombia.

To confuse the issue nicely, there are several different awards - one for the Armed Forces, then a separate one for each of the 3 branches of service: Army, Navy & Air Force - which all bear the name Medalla "Fé en la Causa"!

The Army were first, in 2011. creating the award as part of a 'hearts & minds' campaign to convince the nation that the Army was their friend, full of honourable and upstanding individuals. This is the one shown in the Facebook page you referenced, and its full title is Medalla "Fé en la Causa" del Ejército Nacional.

The other 2 services got in on the act in 2012, instituting the Medalla "Fé en la Causa" de la Armada Nacional and the Medalla "Fé en la Causa" de la Fuerza Aérea. I did find an image of the Air Force medal on a Colombian medal sales site, with a pale blue ribbon with narrow red, blue, and yellow edges.

Then in 2014, there appeared the Medalla "Fé en la Causa" del Comando General de la Fuerzas Militar which I've seen in award ceremony pictures as both a neck & a chest award. It is a red-enamelled cross on a purple ribbon with narrow yellow, blue, and red edges. Still looking for a decent image of that too.

A proud display of a lifetime of service. Congratulations!

I recognise the Medal "For Assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine" - it's already on my website.

Instituted on 21 May 2008[1], this award was discontinued in the 2012 reforms and eventually reinstated on 9 December 2015[2]. The same insignia was used throughout.

The insignia consists of an 8-pointed rayed star, 38mm in diameter.  In the centre of the obverse there is a gilt, red-enamelled cross resting on a gilt wreath, this has a central roundel enamelled blue bearing the Trident national symbol. The reverse is plain, inscribed ЗА СПРИЯННЯ ЗБРОЙНІ СИЛИ УКРАЇНИ [FOR ASSISTANCE TO THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE].

This is a fascinating resource, thanks for posting the link. Mostly about uniforms & insignia but there is a good section on Estonian Defence Forces' decorations at the back!

It's still growing... got the State Awards done (except new ones appear), some Ministry of Defence and some Ministry of Internal Affairs. Still hunting other ministry awards and then there are all the cities, etc.

There will be a PDF eventually. I may even investigate print on demand for those who prefer a 'dead tree' book. That way you don't have the expense of a print run and the real advantage is that it never goes out of print! And you can add new stuff when it appears, just change the master PDF.

Are the Facebook medal groups easy to find? Maybe I shall try it next year.

Things can get confusing!

Looks like the person in your picture is wearing a uniform - OMAC? - in which case awards should be worn according to the regulations of the organisation whose uniform is being worn.

In civilian dress, it is more up to the individual which of the awards they have received to wear. There is an order of precendence for awards from their own nation and other nations, which ought to be followed; and all national governmental awards should take precedence over those of non-governmental bodies... except possibly at events run by said bodies.

In Australia, it's customary for non-national awards to be worn on the right breast, which can lead to an unbalanced look on such as firefighters or law enforcement officers who have been honoured by their organisations or states, but have few or no national awards.

The matter gets even more complex when an individual adds in 'private purchase' medals to the mix!

Are there a lot of medal enthusiasts there? Maybe it is worth a visit after all... not that I am a fan of social media at all.

The article posted earlier was very interesting. Plenty of food for thought and quite illunminating on the decidedly 'random' way in which Ukranian awards seem to have developed since independence. I'm still trying to make head or tail of them... now over 200 pages of notes!

Why not just continue discussing them here? Although interested in the topic I'm not going to join Facebook just to read your group...

The Spinks sale 21001 has 3 collars, described as for Chief, Elder, and Moran of the Order.

Chief -

The notes say that the Chief collar was awarded to The Honourable P. J. Ngei, who was a friend of Kenyatta having been imprisoned with him. He was one of the 'Kapenguria Six', forming the African People's Party; he took up a seat in the independent Kenyan Parliament in 1969. He died on 15 August 2004.

Elder

Moran

The other two are not mentioned as having been awarded to anyone, just as being in a case of issue complete with ribbon bar.

Spinks sale 21001 has a couple of examples of this variant as well:

Lot 1038, Chief

Lot 1039, Moran.

There do seem to be quite a lot in the wild, so it would be interesting to find out if they were ever actually awarded.

Probably because in Scotland ambulances are administered by a unitary body, the Scottish Ambulance Service (it's their badge that is used on the reverse) rather than the patchwork of 'Ambulance Trusts' who run ambulance services in the rest of the UK.

Instituted 5 July 1996.

One could argue that their service was not campaign serivce so a clasp on a GSM would be inappropriate. New Zealand created a separate series of 'Special Service Medals' which were awarded to recognise participation in other activities - things like the Boxing Day Tsunami, rescuing an aircraft that crashed in Antarctica, etc., as well as their nuclear test programme - and which are quite distinct from their medals and clasps for campaign service.

2 hours ago, Paul463 said:

UK Commission on Covid Commemoration - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

 

Perhaps a UK medal in this?

I don't know but there's a public consultation running until 5 December for people to express their opinions. I have just filled it out.

I saw that too... but you beat me to it posting here

New Zeland's equivalent, the New Zealand Special Service Medal (Nuclear Testing) was instituted on 18 March 2002, and in common with other New Zealand Special Service Medals has the national arms on the obverse rather than a sovereign's head.

It will be interesting to see what design they come up with for this one.

Looks like a fascinating rabbit hole to fall into.  Is your book widely available?

The coinage head for King Charles III is uncrowned and set to remain so. Whether the same design will be used for medals will have to be seen.

Fascinating, she says, having found this thread whilst searching for information to update the Ethiopian section of my website.