Republic of Ghana

[IVB]

7. Officer Cadets of The Ghana Military Academy

[IVB]

8. Officer Cadets of The Prisons Service

[IVB]

9. And the last photo - Special Forces parade:

[Megan]

Fascinating stuff, folks, thank you for sharing.

[gongz]

ila559

Unknown cross in post #38 is the Distinguished Flying Cross

[ilja559]

Thanks !!!

Distinguished Flying Cross

La Distinguished Flying Cross est réservée aux officiers de l'armée de l'air, pour leur courage exceptionnel et leur dévouement au cours d'actions de guerre. Elle peut être décernée «immédiatement», mais pas à titre posthume...

Insigne: croix en argent, à centre circulaire, représentant une couronne de feuillages entourant l'inscription «Distinguished Flying Cross»; le revers porte un aigle entouré d'une couronne de feuillages; la croix est suspendue au ruban par une barrette représentant un aigle.

Ruban: ruban composé de sept bandes verticales rouge (6,5 mm.), blanc (3 mm.), brun (6,5 mm.), noir (3 mm.), brun (6,5 mm.), blanc (3 mm.) et rouge (6,5 mm.).

[Laurence Strong]

Ghana Révolution Day Medal

Cette médaille, instituée en 1970, est destinée à commémorer le renversement du Président Nkrumah en 1966.

Insigne: médaille ovale, en argent, représentant à l'avers un groupe de citoyens en marche, entourés de l'inscription «Ghana Révolution Day 24 February 1966», et au revers, la Flaglaff Gate.

Ruban: ruban de 32 mm., rouge avec une ligne centrale blanche de 6 mm.

I left Accra a week before the revolution.

Larry

[peter monahan]

Lawrence

Good luck or good planning?

Peter

[Laurence Strong]

I would have to say planing. Dad got posted to Portugal, he worked for the Embassy.

Larry

[congobrown]

5. Army --- Army

The guy on the right looks like Maj Gen Carl Modey wearing the new(ish) style badges of rank.

[peter monahan]

Spot on, Congo Brown!

[Megan]

Just done a major update to the Ghana section of my website. This thread proved very useful, and I also must thank the good folks at Dix Noonan Web who kindly allowed me to use some very nice images from a sale back in December 2012.

We've covered a lot here, but of course I've found out the odd thing along the way.

The Order of the Star and Eagles of Ghana - which as you recall was instituted by the then President John Kufour basically for himself - was established by the National Honours Instrument of 2008, which was rescinded by the next President, Atta Mills, in 2010 although he very generously allowed anyone awarded an honour under its terms to retain and wear it! Still haven't found any decent images of the beast, though.

Most of the other orders, decorations and medals of Ghana were instituted by the Honours Warrant of 1 July 1960. This was drafted by a British constitutional law specialist called Francis Bennion, who was also responsible for drafting the nation's constitution. Of course, as various events transpired, other medals were created to mark them - in particular, a succession of 'regime changes' brought about by revolts often led by the military.

The Order of the Star of Ghana is the premier honour (apart from 2008-2010 when the Order of the Star and Eagles existed) is in 3 classes: Companion, Officer and Member.

The Companion is worn on a sash over the right shoulder, but unusually there is no star associated with this class.

Here's the Companion badge:

The badge consists of a heavy seven-pointed star with square arms, with an eagle in the centre of the obverse. The reverse shows the national arms with the title of the award (including class) written around it. The Companion badge is all gold, the Officer silver with the eagle in gold and the Officer all silver.

Here's the obverse of an Officer badge:

And the reverse of a Member one:

Now, Companions are quite often seen wearing an all-gold neck badge at the same time as they are wearing their sash badge - a quite unusual style, but one also seen with the Order of the Volta as discussed earlier in this thread.

[Megan]

The Ghana UN Middle East Medal was awarded for participation in UN missions in the Middle East (as well as, presumably, whatever medals the UN itself handed out).

[Megan]

The Republic Day Medal had a rather spotty history - originally instituted in 1960 it was discontinued in 1966 and then re-established in 1970, and again in 1979.

The original version was a circular silver medal. The obverse showed the portrait head of President Nkrumah and the reverse bore the national arms surrounded by the inscription REPUBLIC DAY above and 1 JULY 1960 below. I've yet to find a picture of that.

The current issue is an oval silver medal, but still on the same ribbon. On the obverse is Christianborg Castle with the inscription REPUBLIC DAY 1 JULY 1960 above and CHRISTIANBORG CASTLE underneath. The reverse shows the national arms.

And here it is:

[Megan]

The Republic Commemorative Medal (not quite sure what that's awarded for) apparently comes in different variations.

This is the Police one.

I haven't found any other versions yet.

[gongz]

Hi Megan

The "Republic Commemorative Medal" you refer to in Post #65 is in fact a "Republic Day Medal" as mentioned in the first para of your Post #64.

The other two reverses were "Prisons" and "Armed Forces".

They were awarded to those serving on 1 July 1960. Why the 2nd type came about,,,,who knows ???? And, bye the way, "Prisons" was not included in the original Warrant.

G.

postv

[ilja559]

The other two reverses were "Prisons" and "Armed Forces".

This one with another reverse.

[GHQ Museum]

Hello Gentlemen,

Would any of you know where it would be possible to obtain a 1960 Ghana Republic Medal awarded to the army (issued 1st July 1960)? There seems to be plenty available in the police issue however I am finding it difficult to obtain the army version.

Thanks and Regards,

[ilja559]

Order of the Volta

[heusy68]

Hello Gentlemen,

Hello Ilja,

It seems there has ben 3 Type of Order of the Volta. There is evidence in collection from a 1st series of awards of Ghana, prior to the Ghana Award Book published by their Chancellery in the 1970ies

The 1st Type you can see it, on official photo of Valentina Tereshkova, who was awarded it in January 1964. For those who do not remember Valentina Tereshkova was the 12th person who went to space and the first woman to go to space, and she was awarded plenty of awards from a lot of countries. By the way it is strange, that on the many photo and portrait of Yuri Gagarin, there is no Ghana awards.

Then somewhen, likely after the 1967 Coup against N'Krumah, there was a reform in the award system, not by changing everything, but issuing new type of Orders & Medals. For the Medal, you really got to know well your subject, but for the Orders the changes of shape is much more obvious.

Then in somewhen ( I believe 2008 ), comes a 3rd Type of the Order of the Volta, and Ilja by his post of yesterday shall be credited.I  didn't knew Cleave was the manufacturer, but any ways Cleave is an excellent manufacturer. The date for 3rd type, ( ie 2008 ), is because as long as I remember, it's the first time, I start to see that 3rd type on photo (the overall shape is not that much modified, but the center piece is now made of 1 item, with enameled rim, with the name of the Order). On Type 2, the name of the Order was written on reverse.

Regards to all.

    Emmanuel

 

Edited May 4, 2020 by heusy68

[heusy68]

This is the photo of Valentina Tereshkova, from which I took the "small" screen capture from the Order of the Volta 1st Type.

You can get this photo from the wikipedia page of Valentina Tereshkova.

That gilt (or gold) Medal on her left breast, with straight dark blue ribbon, with black central stripe, and narrow red edged stripes is obviously the Order of the Volta, she was awarded in 1964.

Valentina Tereshkova is born in 1937, and is still alive. By the way, I do not know if all her awards are still with her, or if she donated them to a museum in Russian Federation.

Maybe Ilja could help in this matter.

     Regards.

          Emmanuel