Help identifying Order of Orange-Nassau

[AussieTimmeh]

Hi all. My name is Tim and I'm new here. 

My great-grandfather (1885-1973) was the beekeeper for the Dutch royal family before he moved his family to Australia. I was told by my father that he was awarded a medal of the Order or the Orange-Nassau of some type for his services to the Queen keeping their bees. My great-grandfather passed away before I was born and my grandfather passed away when I was little, so I never got to talk to them about it. My dad knows very little, but he does have the medal miniature of his great-grandfather. He was told that when the medal holder passes away, the full sized medal gets returned to the Netherlands, and as such we don't have the large medal. This may or may not be correct - I am only going off what I have been told.

I know there are different types of medals in the Order of the Orange-Nassau, but I would really love to know which one my great-grandfather was awarded. I have his full name and date of birth if I can look it up in a list or in a book. I have taken some close up photos of the miniature that we have which is in pretty poor condition, and also a photo of my great-grandfather wearing his medal when he was still alive, if they help identify it. I was wondering if there was a registry that I could look up somewhere or a book I could buy with the names and awards listed, or if you can tell by looking at the evidence I have.

If anyone can identify these medals or can point me in the right direction, I'd be super grateful to know more about my great-grandfather. Thank you for reading.

Edited January 14, 2017 by AussieTimmeh

[Herman]

Hello, it is called the Zilveren Eremedaille in de Orde van Oranje Nassau / Honor medal in Silver to the Order of Oranje Nassau.  It is awarded without the swords as it is a non military award in this case.

This class of the Order is no longer given. It was abolished in 1993 together with the Gold and Bronze class aswell. The class of Member replaces the three medals since then.

To my knowledge there are no books containing any lists. You could contact the chancery of Dutch Orders in The Hague through their website www.lintjes.nl and ask your questions there. If you want to buy the large size medal, they sometimes appear on marktplaats.nl. They are not expensive. My grandfather was awarded the same medal, it was given back to the chancery at his death and I bought one on this site for around 50 euro.

I hope this helps.

Success and good luck,

Herman  

[AussieTimmeh]

Thank you Herman, it's nice to learn a little bit more than I knew before. It is really interesting to hear about your grandfather also.

How do you tell which separates this medal from the others? There seem to be so many that look the same to my untrained eye. 

I have enjoyed reading about all the amazing medals on this site; I wish I knew more to help others but I will slowly learn.

Thanks once again, I appreciate it.

Tim

Edited January 14, 2017 by AussieTimmeh

[Herman]

This is the Silver medal because the miniature picture shows a silver class medal. The picture of your great grandfather also point in this direction.

Furthermore the Silver class was given much more than the Gold and Bronze one. 

 

Cheers

Herman  

[AussieTimmeh]

Thanks Herman!

[Megan]

If you want to know more about the medal itself, try Knights of Orange: Orders of the Netherlands by Antti Ruokonen.