Regulations Concerning the Acceptance & Wearing of Foreign Orders, Decorations <br />& Medals by Persons in the Service of the Crown. 1957

Index
 
Regulations Concerning the Acceptance & Wearing of Foreign Orders, Decorations
& Medals by Persons in the Service of the Crown. 1957

(United Kingdom and Dependent Territories).

Orders.

1. No person in the service of the Crown may accept and wear the insignia of any Foreign Order without Her Majesty's permission.

2. Such permission, if granted, will be either :

  1. unrestricted, conveyed by Warrant under the Royal Sign-Manual and allowing the insignia to be worn on any occasion; or
  2. restricted, conveyed by letter from Her Majesty's Private Secretary and allowing the insignia to be worn only on the particular occasions therein specified.

3. Full and unrestricted permission by Royal Warrant is contemplated in the case of Orders conferred :

  1. for distinguished services in saving or attempting to save life ;
  2. on any officer in the Royal Navy, Army or Royal Air Force, or any British official in recognition of services while lent to a foreign Government, if not in receipt of any emoluments from British public funds during the period of such loan.

4. Restricted permission is particularly contemplated in the case of Orders conferred in recognition of personal attention to a foreign Sovereign, the Head of a foreign state, or a member of a foreign Royal Family on the occasion of State or official visits by such personages.

5. Restricted permission will also be given for the wearing of insignia of foreign Orders conferred

  1. on members of Her Majesty's Missions abroad in connection with a State visit by Her Majesty to the foreign capital concerned ;
  2. on members of deputations of British regiments to foreign Heads of States ;
  3. on members of Special Missions when the Queen is represented at a foreign Coronation, Wedding, Funeral, or similar occasion ; or on any Diplomatic Representative when specially accredited to represent Her Majesty on such occasions (but not on the members of his staff).
  4. Permission will not be given to

  5. the Heads or other members of Her Majesty's Diplomatic or Consular establishments abroad when leaving, whether on transfer or on final retirement.
  6. officers of British naval, military or air squadrons or units visiting foreign countries, except as provided at b. above.

6. Application for the Queen's permission, whether full or restricted, will be submitted to Her Majesty by her Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who however shall be under no obligation to consider them unless, before the bestowal of the Order, the Government of the foreign country concerned has ascertained either through the British Diplomatic Representative there or through its Diplomatic Representative at Her Majesty's Court, that having regard to these Regulations the award would not give rise to any objection.

In no case can application be considered in respect of Orders conferred more than five years previously or offered in connection with events so long prior to the proposal to award them.

7. When Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs shall have sought and obtained Her permission for a British subject to wear the Insignia of a foreign Order without restriction, he shall signify the same to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, or to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Scotland if appropriate is the circumstances of the case, in order that he may cause a Warrant as contemplated in Rule 2, to be prepared for the Royal Sign-Manual.

When such Warrant shall have been signed by Her Majesty, a notification of the grant of permission shall be published in the London Gazette, or in the Edinburgh Gazette as the case may be.

8. The Warrant conveying Her Majesty's permission may, at the request and expense of the recipient, be registered in the College of Arms if it has been submitted to Her Majesty by Her Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, or in the Court of the Lyon King of Arms if it has been submitted to Her Majesty by Her Principal Secretary of State for Scotland.

Every such Warrant shall contain a clause providing that Her Majesty's licence and permission does not authorise the assumption of any style, appellation, rank, precedence or privilege appertaining to the degree of Knight Bachelor.

9. Permission will riot be granted for the wearing of the insignia of foreign Orders conferred otherwise than by the Heads or Governments of foreign States recognised by Her Majesty as such.

Medals.

10. Medals, with the exceptions specified below, and State decorations not indicating membership of an Order of Chivalry, are subject to the Regulations in the same manner as Orders, but permission, if granted, is given by letter or certificate, and riot by Royal Warrant.

11. Medals for saving or attempting to save life at sea or on land, whether conferred on behalf of the Head or Government of a foreign State or by private Life-Saving Societies or Institutions, may be accepted and worn, subject only to the restrictions imposed by the regulations for the Services concerned.

Applications for Her Majesty's permission to wear other Medals conferred by Private Societies or Institutions cannot be entertained.

12. Applications for permission to wear foreign medals gained in warlike operations will not be entertained if the grant of such permission would be at variance with considerations of general policy or public interest.

General.

13. The wives of persons in the service of the Crown are regarded for the purposes of these Regulations as sharing the disabilities of their husbands concerning the acceptance of foreign awards.

14. Persons employed in the commissioned or salaried service of the Crown on a temporary basis are subject to these Regulations in the same way as those employed on a permanent and pensionable basis.

15. Members of the various police and constabulary forces maintained in the United Kingdom and Dependent Territories are uniformly regarded as subject to these Regulations, with the exception however of British Transport Commission Police and Dock and Harbour Police Forces established under private Statutes.

16. Persons who have retired from the service of the Crown remain subject to these Regulations in so far as concerns the acceptance of foreign Orders, decorations or medals offered in respect of services rendered before their retirement.

17. The Regulations shall be regarded as applying, in the same way as to British subjects, to British-protected persons who are such by virtue of their connection with a Protectorate or Trust Territory administered under the supervision of Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies or Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Commonwealth-Relations ; they may also be regarded as applying in the same manner to British-protected persons who are such by virtue of their connection with a Protected State administered under the supervision of either or the said Principal Secretaries of State, but Orders, decorations and medals conferred upon such British-protected persons by their Rulers are not regarded as falling within the scope of these Regulations.

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