Order of Military Merit Marks 50th Anniversary

November 18, 2022 - Defence Stories

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of the Order of Military Merit by Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Order was created on July 1, 1972, to recognize conspicuous merit and exceptional service by active members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).

This significant milestone in the Order’s history is being marked by the release of a new Golden Anniversary Register, now available in PDF form. The printed version will be distributed throughout the CAF in the near future.

The motto of the Order is Officium ante commodum – “Service before self”– and those who have been bestowed with the honour of joining the Order are the embodiment of this motto. The Order is a rare and prestigious mark of gratitude from Crown and Country for long and distinguished military service to Canada.

There are three levels of membership in the Order: Member, Officer and Commander. The number of appointments made annually is the equivalent of 0.1 percent of the total strength of the CAF in the preceding year. In 2022, there will be 107 appointments or promotions: 5 CMMs, 22 OMMs, and 80 MMMs. To date, 5,285 appointments and promotions have been approved: 300 CMMs, 1,377 OMMs and 3,608 MMMs.

In April, to mark the anniversary, and to recognize the long and distinguished service of one of the most active members of the Royal Family with the CAF, then His Royal Highness (HRH) The Prince of Wales was appointed an extraordinary Commander of the Order of Military Merit effective April 12, 2022. (Members of the Royal Family and Governors General are appointed extraordinary members.) HRH had 45 years of CAF service and held nine CAF honorary appointments and three honorary ranks. HRH had been personally and actively involved with his various units, and is highly deserving of the recognition. HRH was only the second direct appointment to the extraordinary division of the Order (aside from Governors General) after His late Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh, who was made an extraordinary CMM in 2013.

The then Prince of Wales was invested with his insignia in a private investiture on May 18, 2022, at Rideau Hall by Governor General Mary May Simon. He wore the insignia immediately afterwards to lay a wreath at the National War Memorial. Since then, as a result of the passing of our Founding Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II, on September 8, 2022, he has acceded to the throne as His Majesty King Charles III and has become the Sovereign of the Order of Military Merit.

In 2017, the Société nationale d'entraide de la Médaille Militaire (in French only) (you are now leaving the Government of Canada website), of France, offered to extend the benefits open to its members to the members of the Order of Military Merit. This offer is in order to show its gratitude for Canada’s military contribution in France during the two world wars and to establish a link between two of our nations’ highest military honours,

In April 2022, a renewed Déclaration d’intention de collaboration (Declaration of intent to cooperate) was signed with the SNEMM. The Declaration includes some clauses related to cooperation between the two honours, as well as some specific clauses related to advantages for members of the Order of Military Merit, the details of which are still being negotiated between the two countries.