Civilian Resistance Medal

Civilian Resistance Medal
Civilian Resistance Medal
	Civilian Resistance Medal (obverse)
Type	War medal
Awarded for	Service in the civilian resistance during World War 2
Presented by	Kingdom of Belgium
Eligibility	Belgian citizens
Status	No longer awarded
Established	21 March 1951
	Reverse of the Civilian Resistance Medal

The Civilian Resistance Medal (French: Médaille du résistant civil, Dutch: Burgerlijke Weerstandsmedaille) was a war service medal of the Kingdom of Belgium established by royal decree on 21 March 1951 and awarded to all members of the Belgian civilian resistance during the Second World War who were recognised as such by the law of 24 September 1946.^[1]

Award description

The Civilian Resistance Medal is a circular 39mm in diameter bronze medal. Its obverse bears the relief image of the torso of a man breaking free of chains around his wrists, a woman stands behind him and slightly to his left. The reverse bears the relief inscription in Latin "RESTITERUNT" meaning "THEY RESISTED" with the years "1940" above and "1945" below. The reverse has a slightly raised border.^[1]

The medal is suspended by a ring through a suspension loop from a 37 mm wide light green silk moiré ribbon with two central 1 mm wide red stripes 5 mm apart and 4 mm black edge stripes. The colours of the ribbon are symbolic, the black denoting the dark days of the German occupation and/or the clandestine nature of the resistance, the green stands for the hope of liberation and the red for the spilled blood of the resistance members.^[1]

Notable recipients (partial list)

Baron Charles Poswick^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Royal Decree of 21 March 1951 creating the Civilian Resistance Medal. Belgian government. 1951-03-21.
^ "Necrology of Baron Charles Poswick" (in French). ARS MORIENDI. 2012-07-06. Archived from the original on 2011-09-06. Retrieved 2012-11-18.

Other sources

Quinot H., 1950, Recueil illustré des décorations belges et congolaises, 4e Edition. (Hasselt)
Cornet R., 1982, Recueil des dispositions légales et réglementaires régissant les ordres nationaux belges. 2e Ed. N.pl., (Brussels)
Borné A.C., 1985, Distinctions honorifiques de la Belgique, 1830–1985 (Brussels)

External links

Bibliothèque royale de Belgique (In French)
Les Ordres Nationaux Belges (In French)
ARS MORIENDI Notables from Belgian history Archived 2011-09-06 at the Wayback Machine (In French and Dutch)

[decree-1] Royal Decree of 21 March 1951 creating the Civilian Resistance Medal. Belgian government. 1951-03-21.

[ARS-2] "Necrology of Baron Charles Poswick" (in French). ARS MORIENDI. 2012-07-06. Archived from the original on 2011-09-06. Retrieved 2012-11-18.

[1]

[2]

v t e Orders, decorations, and medals of Belgium
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