Medal for Meritorious Service

The Medal for Meritorious Service was a medal awarded by the Republic of Rhodesia to civilians and military personnel.^[1][2][4]

Medal for Meritorious Service
Type	Medal
Awarded for	resource[clarification needed] and devotion to duty or exemplary voluntary service to the community.[1][2][3]
Country	Republic of Rhodesia (1970–79) Zimbabwe Rhodesia
Presented by	President of Rhodesia
Eligibility	Military and civilians
Post-nominals	MSM
Status	Discontinued in 1980[a]
Established	November 1970[3]
First award	1970
Total	608[2]
Ribbon bar of the Civilian Division Ribbon bar of the Military Division
Order of Wear
Next (higher)	Prison Medal for Gallantry[1]
Equivalent	Police Medal for Meritorious Service Defence Forces' Medal for Meritorious Service Prison Medal for Meritorious Service[1]
Next (lower)	President's Medal for Chiefs[1]

History

The Medal for Meritorious Service was awarded to civilians (who were usually government workers such as INTAF^[2][4]) for "resource and devotion to duty or exemplary voluntary service to the community.", and awarded to military members (used only for territorial, volunteer and reserve forces^[4]) for "resource and devotion to duty."

Description

The medal was a silver circular medal that was 36mm around, with the obverse of the medal had the national coat of arms, and the reverse had the pick from the coat of arms in the centre encircled by the words "For Meritorious Service". The recipient's name would be etched on the rim, and a silver bar would be awarded for a subsequent award.^[5] The medal also had two different divisions, a civilian division that would have just a plain orange ribbon , and a military division that would have multi-coloured stripes in the centre.^[6]

See also

• Orders, decorations, and medals of Rhodesia
• Meritorious Conduct Medal

Notes

1. All Rhodesian medals were officially discontinued with the change in government. Some were continued under different names.