South African, English/Scottish or what ????

[Marcon1]

Hi all,

Found these on Ebay. Who can tell me more about them, i.e. official/unofficial, from which country and any other info you may have.

It had the following text with it:

Two Medals plus two Miniatures + the order of the tortoise

 

The 'star' reads "ATAVIS ET ARMIS"

 

The medal reads "ORDO MILITARIS ET HOSPITALARIS SANCTI LAZARI IERUSALEM" with " FOR MERITORIOUS SERVICE TO THE GRAND BAILIWICK OF SOUTH AFRICA"

 

The "Order of the tortoise" according to the seller/owner: 

 quote "was created to encourage all things scottish. I'm not sure how official the order was but there were only about 10 made".

 

------------------------------------

 

I'm especially interested to know more about the South Africa connection.

 

With thanks.

 

Marcon1.

[Arthur R]

The ones with the green ribbons are from the SA bailiwick (branch) of the Order of St Lazarus.  It's a private organisation.  Never heard of the Order of the Tortoise before, but it's surely also private.

[Marcon1]

Thanks Arthur.

PS: I can't find your listings anymore.

They appeared on Geocities first and than on another website, now if I look for them I get the notice saying it was removed.

Any plans to bring them back, maybe here ??

 

[peter monahan]

The Military Order of  Hospitallers of St Lazarus was founded in 1910 by the Vatican for Greek Orthodox Catholics [principally] and is based on or descended from [you choose] the Crusader era group of similar name.  

There is an 'Order of the Turtle' which was basically a drinking club for WWII era US fighter pilots.  I suspect the Order of the Tortoise is a descendant or offshoot group.

Peter