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Military Health Service honour medal

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 24, 2024
Entity authorityQ3332307 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Military Health Service honour medal (French: "Médaille d'honneur du service de santé des armées") is a French decoration created 30 August 1962. The medal recognizes individuals who have contributed or lent their support to the French Defence Health service and were particularly marked by their services or their dedication. It is presented in four different levels: gold, vermeil, silver, and bronze. It may be awarded to members of the military as well as civilians.

History

The Military Health Service honour medal replaces six obsolete awards:

Medal of health services of the Army (1931) Médaille des services de santé des armées de Terre

Medal of health services of the Navy (1947) Médaille des services de santé de la Marine nationale

Medal of health services of the Air (1948) Médaille des services de santé de l'Air

Medal of Epidemics of the Ministry of War (1892) Médaille des Epidémies du ministère de la Guerre

Medal of Epidemics of the Ministry of the Navy (1909) Médaille des Epidémies du ministère de la Marine

Medal of Epidemics of the Ministry of France Overseas (1927) Médaille des Epidémies du ministère de la France d'outre-mer

The decree of 28 June 1979 allows the award of this distinction posthumously.

Eligibility

The four levels are awarded under the following conditions:

Bronze Medal for 10 years service;

Silver Medal for 15 years of service and the Bronze Medal

Vermeil Medal for 20 years of service and the Silver Medal;

Gold Medal which is awarded only in exceptional cases.

On the occasion of exceptional circumstances, especially during epidemic periods, nominations could be made for people that do not meet the length of service conditions. No person may be proposed for the grant of a medal if he is already the holder of that of the lower level. However, members of the Order of the Legion of Honor may be directly awarded the silver or vermeil grades. The recipient receives a certificate noting that it has been awarded for services rendered or the dedication he has shown.

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“Military Health Service honour medal” enters the record as open-knowledge reference entry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Military, Health and Service can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1962, 1931, 1947, 1948—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1962-08-30. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Military, Health and Service.
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“Military Health Service honour medal” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Military, Health and Service provides the most credible route into that argument.

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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 24, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q3332307. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1931, 1947 and 1948.

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The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Military Health Service honour medal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.