Belgium HELP!

[Tim B]

I guess to clarify my questions on these, I'll include an excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The classes of the National Orders are integrated in a combined hierarchy defined by law, whereby within one class the Order of Leopold is senior to the Order of the Crown, which is senior to the Order of Leopold II. Except in some specific cases, one cannot be awarded a National Order at a level below the highest that the recipient has already received (e.g. a commissioned officer who become a Commander of the Order of Leopold II because of meritorious personal service to the King before he became a Knight of the Order of Leopold may not be awarded the latter decoration or that of Officer of the Order of Leopold)."

So, has he was awarded the Knights Class of the Leopold II in 1937, the next award would have been the Knights Class of the Crown Order, followed by the Knights Class of the Leopold (I) Order. This would keep the award level at the "Knight" level and still follow with an award higher in stature.

Once he was awarded the Knights level of the Leo I, he could not be awarded anything else (for long service) without upgrading the level to the Officer Class (in this case, the Leopold II in 1963), even though he was never a commissioned officer??

Tim

[Vatjan]

I don't think he would haven been entitled to any other long service awards.

He would have been entitled to a knight Order of the Crown with swords and a knight Order of Leopold 1 with swords. He probably never entered the demand for them, which is why you don't find any references to them.

Then in the 60's he entered the demand for the next promotion,and seeing he would have been entitled to OC 20 years earlier and L1 10 years earlier the Government skipped these 2 and gave him the officer L2, he would have been entitled to if he had entered all the demands. This was normal practice, I have seen this in other groups.

The promotions with swords were in no way linked to the military grade.

Jan

Edited May 21, 2010 by Vatjan

[Tim B]

Hi Jan,

Okay, I am a bit confused here. First, what is meant by "entered the demand"?

Second, in regards to the crossed swords; I thought these were just symbolic of WW1 service recognition and were authorized for those members that served in WWI. Are these actually tied to the promotion cycle??

Thanks again!

Tim

[Vatjan]

It means the veterans had to fill in a form an send it to the ministry themselves in order to be taken in account for a promotion in the national orders.

They had to ask for it.

Not every veteran was entitled to swords on the orders.

You had to have a certain number of war"points" to get them.

These points were calculated on the number of frontstripes you got, which medals you were awarded, citations, etc...

If you had enough points you got your first promotion with swords, and 10 years afterwards another, and so on.

Not enough points, no promotions, ergo no swords.

Again, promotion here means, getting a higher grade of a national order.

This has nothing to do with military grades or rank.

Jan

Edited May 22, 2010 by Vatjan