FYI


GERMAN MILITARY CROSS OF HONOUR FOI 0269-08

Thank you for your email of 27 March, asking if Commander William Edward Grenfell, RN (retd) had permission to accept and wear the German Military Cross of Honour.

Her Majesty's permission to accept and wear a foreign award is only required for State awards. As the Cross of Honour is awarded directly by the Minister of Defence and not by the Federal President, it is not considered to be a State award, but an internal one. In these circumstances, the German authorities do not need HMG's permission to bestow the award as the recipients will not receive formal permission from The Queen to wear the medal.

Paul,

So this means that the document distributed by the HD Committee and headed THE PINGAT JASA MALAYSIA, AND WHY ELIGIBLE BRITISH RECIPIENTS MAY EXCEPTIONALLY RECEIVE, BUT NOT WEAR, THE MEDAL is wrong where it says - The Rules apply to all foreign awards that are designed to be worn.

And the Rules Governing the Accepting and Wearing of Foreign Orders, Decorations and Medals by Citizens of the United Kingdom and Her Overseas Territories which set out the circumstances under which a citizen of the United Kingdom may be granted the Sovereign's permission to accept and wear an Order, Decoration or Medal, conferred by a Head of State or Government of a foreign country, are also wrong????

Just a thought:

1. “not considered to be a State award” - by whom is it not considered? The German Ministry of Defence surely must be acting on behalf of the German President (according to their rules and not the catch all’s issued by our lot); in the same way that it is, "in our view, considered that there is no difference between HM signing a document and the signature of her Private Secretary in conveying the decision"!

2. "In these circumstances, the German authorities do not need HMG’s permission to bestow the award as the recipient will not receive formal permission from the Queen to wear the medal". I wonder how long it will be before someone in the MoD DS Sec, FCO or Cabinet Office will claim “that since the Agon who conferred it is now no longer the Agon of Malaysia, but a Royal State Leader, we shall have to refer the matter to the HD Committee for clarification as to whether any recommendation will ever be given for it to be formally worn in accordance with our newly formulated rules which are now/will be placed in the House of Commons Library on the instructions of the Minister. We cannot at this time estimate how long such a review will take”.

After all, how long would it take them to rewrite Part C again? Mind you, I think this is too far fetched even for those with which we deal. Or is it?

I may be hateful but I am not paranoid; I just do not trust these people after 3 years of campaigning by the fight4the pjm committee and its supporters.

I wonder if this is the Commanders punishment for having fought the Civil Servants over the Arctic Medal/Emblem; we know they are bad losers, don't we?