The Somalia Medal () was a

campaign medal A campaign medal is a military decoration which is awarded to a member of an armed force who serves in a designated military operation or performs duty in a geographical theater. Campaign medals are very similar to service medals but carry a hi ...

created in 1992 by the

Canadian monarch The monarchy of Canada is Canada's Government#Forms, form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is one of the key components of Canadian sovereignty and sits at the core of Canadian federalism, Canada's cons ...

- in-Council to recognize members of the

Canadian Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

who had directly participated in the international military coalition invasion to stabilize Somalia following the outbreak of its civil war. It is, within the Canadian system of honours, the fourth highest of the war and operational service medals.

Design

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

plated

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

medal with, on the obverse, three overlapping maple leaves between the word ''CANADA'' above (which the original design did not include) and two sprigs of laurel leaves below. On the reverse is the

Royal Cypher In modern heraldry, a royal cypher is a monogram or monogram-like device of a country's reigning Monarch, sovereign, typically consisting of the initials of the monarch's name and title, sometimes interwoven and often surmounted by a Crown (heral ...

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

surmounted by a St. Edward's Crown symbolizing the sovereign's roles as both

fount of honour The fount of honour () is a person, who, by virtue of their official position, has the exclusive right of conferring legitimate titles of nobility and orders of chivalry on other persons. Origin During the High Middle Ages, European knights ...

and

Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces The commander-in-chief of the Canadian Armed Forces () exercises supreme command and control over Canada's military, the Canadian Armed Forces. Constitutionally, command-in-chief is vested in the Monarchy of Canada, Canadian monarch, currently . ...

circumscribed by the words ''SOMALIA • 1992-93 • SOMALIE''. This medallion is worn at the left chest, suspended on a 31.8mm wide ribbon coloured with vertical stripes with two in the shade of blue used by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

flanking a series in white (representing peace), sand (recalling the physical features of the theatre of operations), light blue (representing the Air Command), scarlet (representing the

Land Force Command The Canadian Army () is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also responsible for the Army Reserve ...

), and dark blue (recalling the Maritime Command).

Eligibility and allocation

Though the

Governor General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

-in-Council did not originally intend to issue a medal for the Somalia campaign, due to the so called scandal that had taken place there, on 8 April 1997, Queen Elizabeth II, on the advice of her Cabinet under

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a retired Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. He served as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, leader of t ...

, created the Somalia Medal to recognize members of the

who had served in the

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

of the

Somali Civil War The Somali Civil War (; ) is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed ...

. To qualify for the medal, individuals had to have served for 90 days between 16 November 1992 and 30 June 1993 in

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

, or within 200 kilometers of the Somali coast, as a part of the operation to stabilize the country and offer humanitarian aid. However, the requirements for the Somalia Medal were the first to specifically demand "honourable service", meaning that those members of

the Canadian Airborne Regiment The Canadian Airborne Regiment () was a Canadian Forces formation created on April 8, 1968. It was not an administrative regiment in the commonly accepted British Commonwealth sense, but rather a tactical formation manned from other regiments and ...

involved in the murder of a Somali thief who tried breaking into the Canadian base were not among the total 1,408 medals that were issued. The mission by Canada was referred to as Operation Deliverance, and there was only one tour there in Somalia. Unfortunately the one incident of the death of the Somali over shadowed all the heroic acts of bravery and good the Canadian soldiers achieved while on tour there .

References

Works cited

* {{cite book, last=McCreery, first=Christopher, authorlink=Christopher McCreery, title=The Canadian Honours System, publisher=

Dundurn Press Dundurn Press is one of the largest Canadian-owned book publishing companies of adult fiction and non-fiction. The company publishes Canadian literature, history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Hum ...

, location=Toronto, date=2005, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V5jmWNFPagIC, isbn=978-1-55002-554-5 Canadian campaign medals United Nations operations in Somalia Somali Civil War 1992 establishments in Canada Awards established in 1992 Peacekeeping Canada–Somalia relations

Design

Eligibility and allocation

See also

References

Works cited