Military medals...
Posted: 07 Oct 2012 13:39
A point about medals.... You may have a rellie who served in the Suez Canal Zone in the late 1940s and early 1950s and they should have a medal for that service.
They wouldn't take me in WW2 'cos I was under-age, but I did serve a couple of years in the Suez Canal Zone in the early 50s. This before the Suez Crisis of 1956. For many years the MOD refused to acknowledge service there. They insisted it was not an 'Active Service Zone' even though we came back with less men than we went out with due to 'enemy' action. If you wanted a medal you went to Korea or Malaya etc!
Recently after much lobbying this attitude changed and there is now a medal for soldiers who served in the Canal Zone and 'got sand in their shoes' before the withdrawal and the subsequent Suez Crisis of 1956 following the President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal.
So if you have someone who was out there, Regular or National Service, make sure they claim the medal!
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Defen ... Office.htm
They wouldn't take me in WW2 'cos I was under-age, but I did serve a couple of years in the Suez Canal Zone in the early 50s. This before the Suez Crisis of 1956. For many years the MOD refused to acknowledge service there. They insisted it was not an 'Active Service Zone' even though we came back with less men than we went out with due to 'enemy' action. If you wanted a medal you went to Korea or Malaya etc!
Recently after much lobbying this attitude changed and there is now a medal for soldiers who served in the Canal Zone and 'got sand in their shoes' before the withdrawal and the subsequent Suez Crisis of 1956 following the President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal.
So if you have someone who was out there, Regular or National Service, make sure they claim the medal!
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Defen ... Office.htm