RCEME Honours, Decorations, and Medals V4
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COC / RCOC (E) / RCEME / LORE / LEME / EME Honours, Decorations, and Medals by Major (Ret’d) Douglas C. Knight, CD with Colonel (Ret’d) Murray C. Johnston, MSM, CD version 4 – 2019 Note: unless otherwise stated, all persons listed in this document were members of the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME) and its predecessors, the Canadian Ordnance Corps (COC) and Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps (Engineering Branch) (RCOC (E)), the Land Ordnance Engineering Branch (LORE), the Land Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Branch (LEME), and the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Branch (EME). Used generically, the term RCEME includes all these predecessors. COC / RCOC (E) / RCEME / LORE / LEME / RCEME Honours and Awards Authors’ Note This is a work in progress. Our intention is to record the medals and honours awarded to the officers and non-commissioned personnel of RCEME, and its predecessor RCOC (E) and successors LORE, LEME, EME, and RCEME again. As with any work of this nature, it will never be completed, because members of RCEME will undoubtedly continue to receive awards for valour or service. What is Included There is always the difficulty of what awards and medals to include, and which to exclude. Version 1 included only the awards listed by Veteran’s Affairs, Canada, or the DND Honours List, which excluded many command and unit commendations that were currently being awarded. Version 2 adds additional awards, such as Command Commendations, DGLEPM awards and the Director RCEME’s Coin of Excellence. Undoubtedly, some awards are still not included, and this in no way reflects on the merit of those awards, which are well deserved by the individuals that receive them, but is due to limitations of space, and in particular, access to the information. We are not recording United Nations medals, Canadian Forces Decoration, Jubilee medals, etc. However, the award of the CD to a member who receives another medal will be noted, if known. The awards are listed in order of precedence as recorded by VAC and DND. Within an award, details are alphabetical by surname, regardless of rank. The Start Date An additional difficulty was where to start. A rigid start date of formation of RCEME would exclude a significant portion of the Second World War awards. Inclusion of the RCOC (E) confused the start date. In the end, we decided to include awards to COC and RCOC personnel, where they were clearly filling a function that was later taken over by RCEME. A similar approach was taken for personnel who may have received an award with another regiment or corps, and who later transferred to RCEME/LORE/EME. Sources There have been a number of attempts in the past to produce a list of RCEME awards and medals. Colonel RH Hodgson’s A History of RCEME to 1946, includes only Second World War records, was based on DHH records, and contains a number of omissions. Major Jorge Glaus’ Honours and Awards Received by Members of RCEME/LORE/RCEME from World War II to the Present (1994) was based on DHH records and contains some errors created by that source. Nevertheless, it extended the list to 1994, and was published as part of the RCEME Heritage Reprints series. DHH records are invaluable, but are ambiguous in that they contain recommendations for awards that were not approved, and it is difficult to discriminate between those and the approved awards. Because of this, a severe approach has been taken for the substantiation of an award. Unless otherwise noted, awards will not be included in the main text unless they have been confirmed by an entry in the London Gazette or London Gazette Supplement (LG and LGS), the Canada Gazette (CG), a Canadian Army Routine Order (CARO), or from the Governor General of Canada’s on-line honours database (GGCHS). A number of memos have been found that list awards for, eg, DEME, or DGLEM. These are useful, but do Version 4 – 2019 Page 3 of 195 COC / RCOC (E) / RCEME / LORE / LEME / RCEME Honours and Awards not constitute confirmation to the standards of this document. Unconfirmed awards have been listed in Annex B. This ensures that the name is not lost, and allows confirmation later. When possible, the record will include the text of the citation as recorded in the Canada Gazette, or other reliable source. Eventually, we hope to include a photo of the person, and possibly details of his/her later career. Acknowledgements The authors appreciate the assistance of LCol (Ret’d) LL Hellemans, LCol (Ret’d) RW Vincent, and Ms Maryanne Lang for their scanning, OCR, and typing assistance. The authors thank Service Publications for permission to extract and reproduce data from Blatherwick, John, and Halliday, Hugh, Service and Courage, Second World War Awards to Canadians. Service Publications, Ottawa, ON, 2004.The images of the cap badges on the cover sheet are from the British Badge Forum and from the RCEME School in Borden. Errors and Omissions Regardless of the version of this document, there will be errors and omissions. Anyone who notices a problem, or who can contribute details, is requested to contact DND.RCEME- [email protected]. A Note to Version 3 On 11 November 2011, the RCEME Colonel Commandant accepted responsibility for the control, maintenance, and updating of this document. At handover, the version number was increased to version 3. Version 3 includes a few additions to version 2 that was issued by the authors in September 2011. A Note to Version 4 At the 2018 fall RCEME Council, the Col Cmdt BGen (ret’d) Brewer stated that this document needs to be updated and this task fell upon the RCEME Corps Secretariat’s Office, which includes the RCEME Corps SM and the Asst SO RCEME. Version 4 – 2019 Page 4 of 195 COC / RCOC (E) / RCEME / LORE / LEME / RCEME Honours and Awards Contents Authors’ Note ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 What is Included ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 The Start Date ........................................................................................................................................................... 3 Sources ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Errors and Omissions ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Member of the Order of Canada (CM) ................................................................................................................... 8 CM Awards ................................................................................................................................................................ 8 Commander of the Order of Military Merit (CMM) ................................................................................................ 9 CMM Awards ............................................................................................................................................................. 9 Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) .......................................................................................... 11 CBE Awards ............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Distinguished Service Order (DSO) ....................................................................................................................... 12 DSO Awards ............................................................................................................................................................. 12 Officer of the Order of Military Merit (OMM) ...................................................................................................... 13 OMM Awards .......................................................................................................................................................... 13 Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) .................................................................................................. 16 OBE Summary .......................................................................................................................................................... 16 OBE Awards ............................................................................................................................................................. 17 Member of the Order of Military Merit (MMM) .................................................................................................. 27 MMM Awards ......................................................................................................................................................... 27 Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) ............................................................................................... 36 MBE Summary ......................................................................................................................................................... 36 MBE Awards ...........................................................................................................................................................