The Union of South Africa King's Medal for Bravery was the highest South African civilian decoration, during the period that the country was a constitutional monarchy in the British Commonwealth. It was instituted by King George VI on 23 June 1939 as the King's Medal for Bravery, and was renamed the Queen's Medal for Bravery on 15 December 1952, after the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne. The medal lapsed when South Africa became a republic on 31 May 1961.
The King's/Queen's Medal was awarded for gallantry in saving or endeavouring to save the lives of others. It had two classes: gold and silver. Although it was primarily a civilian award, during the Second World War it was also granted to military personnel, for non-combatant acts of gallantry.
A public competition was held to find a suitable design for the medal. The winning entry, by Miss Renee Joubert, depicted 18th-century Cape hero Wolraad Woltemade on his horse, rescuing shipwreck survivors from a stormy sea. As a result, the medal was often referred to as the "Woltemade Medal". Its ribbon was blue with orange edges, two of the colours of the South African national flag.
A total of thirty-six medals were awarded: one in gold and thirty-five in silver. Eighteen of the recipients were military personnel.
In the British order of precedence, the gold medal ranks as a 2nd-level decoration (equivalent to the George Medal), and the silver medal ranks as a 3rd-level award (equivalent to the Queen's Gallantry Medal). However, in South Africa, the gold medal is ranked as a 1st-level decoration and the silver as a 2nd-level award. Despite its status, the medal has no post-nominal letters.
The medal was revived in 1970, as the Woltemade Decoration for Bravery. It was re-designed in 1988 as the Woltemade Cross for Bravery, which was discontinued in 2002. The current civilian award for bravery is the Order of Mendi for Bravery.
Famous quotes containing the words union of, union, south, africa, king and/or bravery:
“Thus piteously Love closed what he begat:
The union of this ever-diverse pair!
These two were rapid falcons in a snare,
Condemned to do the flitting of the bat.”
—George Meredith (1828–1909)
“The old ideals are dead as nails—nothing there. It seems to me there remains only this perfect union with a woman—sort of ultimate marriage—and there isn’t anything else.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“We in the South were ready for reconciliation, to be accepted as equals, to rejoin the mainstream of American political life. This yearning for what might be called political redemption was a significant factor in my successful campaign.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“Gargantua, at the age of four hundred four score and forty- four years begat his son Pantagruel, from his wife, named Badebec, daughter of the King of the Amaurotes in Utopia, who died in child-birth: because he was marvelously huge and so heavy that he could not come to light without suffocating his mother.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbours.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)