The Canadian Honours System. Christopher McCreery
System was published by Dundurn Press, and since that time there have been a number of aadditions and changes to the Canadian honours system. I am grateful to the many readers who were kind enough to write and make suggestions, offer corrections, and encourage the production of a second edition. Over the period that has transpired since the release of the first edition, I have undertaken a significant amount of additional research into the history of the Order of the British Empire, the Order of Military Merit, the Royal Victorian Order, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Long Service Medal, and the Canadian Forces’ Decoration as the result of other publishing pro-jects. This research has yielded new and largely unknown information about the Canadian honours system and also necessitated a number of corrections. T. Robert Fowler’s work Courage Rewarded: The Valour of Canadian Soldiers Under Fire 1900–2011, which examines the bestowal of gallantry decorations upon Canadians, has also significantly enhanced our understanding of this part of our honours system.
With the centennial of the First World War and seventy-fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, there is a heightened interest in the history of our honours system and how it has been used to recognize service men and women past and present. Although the honours from the two world wars of the past century are now historical artifacts, the surviving veterans of the Second World War give us a chance to learn about the stories that their insignia can tell. Similarly, the decade-long war in Afghanistan has also resulted in more than forty thousand Canadians being recognized with war service medals. This, too, has increased interest in the various forms of recognition accorded to our fellow citizens for service at home and abroad.
The most notable change to the Canadian honours system has been the physical manufacture of the Canadian Victoria Cross. Other important milestones have included the first conferral of the Star of Military Valour and Medal of Military Valour. It can now be said that Her Majesty’s Canadian Armed Forces are served and recognized by a complete honours system.
A new addition to the Canadian honours system was the Sacrifice Medal, which was announced in September 2008, along with a number of new United Nations (U.N.) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Medals. The reorganization of the General Campaign Star and General Service Medal into awards with mission-specific ribbons — as opposed to a single medal with multiple bars — is another recent change to the honours system, along with the creation of rotation bars. Most recently, the addition of the Operational Service Medal and the Polar Medal has expanded the honours system further. Although considered mementos, the “memorial package” that is presented to the families of fallen members of the Canadian Armed Forces has been greatly enhanced to include elements of recognition previously given to those who died as a result of service in the First and Second World Wars. This, coupled with the Memorial Ribbon, makes the symbolic recognition accorded to the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice more extensive than at any point in Canada’s military history.
This edition also includes chapters that examine the use of various imperial orders, decorations, and medals that were bestowed upon residents of Canada from the earliest times until 1967. Many readers of the first edition lamented the absence of a more robust overview of the pre-1967 honours bestowed on Canadians. I have used the term imperial as opposed to British to describe the pre-1967 honours conferred on Canadians because the honours were not unique to Canada. Although created by Royal Warrants of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, nearly all of the pre-1967 honours examined in this work were awarded not only to Britons but also to New Zealanders, Australians, South Africans, Newfoundlanders, Indians, and many others.
As noted, this work provides an overview of the Canadian honours system; however, for an in-depth study of the policies and development of the modern Canadian honours system, readers should consult The Order of Canada: Its Origins, History, and Development, as well as a number of other works, also by the present author, related to specific Canadian orders, decorations, and medals:
• On Her Majesty’s Service: Royal Honours and Recognition in Canada
• The Maple Leaf and the White Cross: A History of the Order of St. John and St. John Ambulance in Canada
• The Canadian Forces’ Decoration
• The Order of Military Merit
• Commemorative Medals of the Queen’s Reign in Canada
• Maintiens le Droit: Recognizing Service, a History of the RCMP Long Service Medal
In 2011 the author had the privilege of being commissioned by the Privy Council Office to undertake the most extensive review of the Canadian honours system to be completed since the reorganization of the Order of Canada and the establishment of the Order of Military Merit and the Decorations for Bravery. The ongoing adoption of many of the recommendations contained in the report has and will continue to result in a number of administrative changes to the way our honours system functions, along with the creation of a number of new honours, notably the Polar Medal and Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers.
An honours system is a living institution, one that changes with time. It expands and contracts depending on the needs of the society it is ultimately meant to serve on behalf of the Crown. Such a balance is not easily attained — even countries with ancient honours systems struggle with issues of accessibility, equality, insignia quality, and obtaining suitable recipients.
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ORDERS, DECORATIONS, AND MEDALS AROUND THE WORLD: UBIQUITOUS NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Like flags and coats of arms, almost every country possesses an honours system. At the centre of these systems there is usually a national honour. iBritain has the Order of the Garter and Order of the Thistle, France the Légion d’honneur, Japan the Order of the Rising Sun, Canada the Order of Canada, and the list goes on. Indeed, there are only a few countries that do not currently possess a national honour or honours system.[1] All other states and regimes have found a use for honours, and in many ways they are a necessity of nationhood.
The concept of honour is as old as humanity itself. Yet honours — that is, the official bestowal of recognition — are in comparison a relatively recent phenomenon. The concepts of honour and honours are directly linked, though there are important differences. Honour is the notion of adhering to what is right: high respect and good reputation through persistent good deeds. One can lead an honourable life and never receive official recognition in the form of an honour. Honours are official marks of recognition, whether they are conferred by proclamations, titles, grants of arms, or insignia. It is equally possible for a person to have received an honour and yet be dishonourable. These variables are defined by every society in accordance with the values that a particular civilization prizes.
Canada’s honours system is derived primarily from two of its founding peoples, the French and British. However, not even these two countries can claim to have invented honours. Throughout modern history a plethora of systems and awards has been designed and used as essential apparatuses of both states and regimes. At times, systems have been displaced by both evolution and revolution, yet always a revised system, roughly patterned on its predecessor, has emerged. All modern honours systems have certain common elements, and the most central of these is the presentation of an insignia, being a badge or medal. This tradition can be traced back to circa 150 B.C. and the gold button given by Alexander, the ruler of Seleucid Syria, to a Jewish high priest for bravery demonstrated in battle. Honour has also been accorded through the bestowal of land and titles, and in ancient Greece a complex system of crowns was devised to reward public and military service. The practice of embossing medallic insignia on breastplates (phaleristics) was initiated by the ancient Romans and has in some ways carried forward to the present day. In India’s Pudukkottai state there was an ancient tradition of the raja presenting gifts and honours to loyal subjects. This ritual served not only as a mechanism for recognition but was also a source of political power. As well, few are unfamiliar with the stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Moving through history, the ideals of chivalry and honours gradually replaced the act of granting land with that of bestowing knighthoods and insignia.
The purpose of honours is to reward service or valorous acts, and to