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, south, africa, king and/or bravery:
“These semi-traitors [Union generals who were not hostile to slavery] must be watched.—Let us be careful who become army leaders in the reorganized army at the end of this Rebellion. The man who thinks that the perpetuity of slavery is essential to the existence of the Union, is unfit to be trusted. The deadliest enemy the Union has is slavery—in fact, its only enemy.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Even when seen from near, the olive shows
A hue of far away. Perhaps for this
The dove brought olive back, a tree which grows
Unearthly pale, which ever dims and dries,
And whose great thirst, exceeding all excess,
Teaches the South it is not paradise.”
—Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)
“I know no East or West, North or South, when it comes to my class fighting the battle for justice. If it is my fortune to live to see the industrial chain broken from every workingman’s child in America, and if then there is one black child in Africa in bondage, there shall I go.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 27:42.
“The bitterest creature under heaven is the wife who discovers that her husband’s bravery is only bravado, that his strength is only a uniform, that his power is but a gun in the hands of a fool.”
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973)