Union Medal
| Union Medal | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Awarded by the Monarch of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms | |
| Country |
 South Africa
|
| Type | Military long service medal |
| Eligibility | Permanent Force, all ranks |
| Awarded for | 18 years of good service |
| Status | Discontinued in 1961 |
| Clasps | 30 years of good service |
| Statistics | |
| Established | 1952 |
| First awarded | 1952 |
| SADF pre-1994 & SANDF post-2002 orders of wear | |
| Next (higher) |
SADF precedence:
SANDF precedence:
|
| Next (lower) |
SADF succession:
SANDF succession:
|
  18 Years and 30 Years service ribbon bars |
|
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The Union Medal was instituted by the Union of South Africa in 1952. It was awarded to Permanent Force members of the South African Defence Force for eighteen years of service and good conduct.
The Union Defence Forces (UDF) were established in 1912 and renamed the South African Defence Force (SADF) in 1958. On 27 April 1994, it was integrated with six other independent forces into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
The Union Medal was instituted by Queen Elizabeth II on 6 April 1952, during the Van Riebeeck Festival.
The medal could be awarded to Permanent Force members of the South African Defence Force for eighteen years of good service. A clasp could be awarded after thirty years of service.
With effect from 6 April 1952, when the Union Medal and several other new decorations and medals were instituted, these new awards took precedence before all earlier British orders, decorations and medals awarded to South Africans, with the exception of the Victoria Cross, which still took precedence before all other awards. The other older British awards continued to be worn in the order prescribed by the British Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood.
The position of the Union Medal in the official order of precedence was revised three times after 1975, to accommodate the inclusion or institution of new decorations and medals, first upon the integration into the South African National Defence Force on 27 April 1994, again when decorations and medals were belatedly instituted in April 1996 for the two former non-statutory forces, the Azanian People's Liberation Army and Umkhonto we Sizwe, and again when a new series of military orders, decorations and medals was instituted in South Africa on 27 April 2003.
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