Medals and Awards

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Medals and Awards. For most the list of awards making the headlines at New Year and the King’s Birthday List are simply a list of people, many of whom we have never heard of and probably will never hear of again. Those awarded medals in times of conflict are more likely to be remembered, if only because the recipients have become a part of history. As numismatists - those associated with coins as well as medals - will confirm, medals and awards all have a beginning, were created for a specific reason. While we often hear the narrative of the recipient, we rarely if ever hear of the story behind the award itself. Here is a talk giving a different historical view. An examination of the award, its beginnings and event the recipients, albeit a rather different look.

Order of the Garter – or correctly the Most Noble Order of the Garter was founded in 1348 by Edward II, it is limited to just 24 members at any one time, effectively 23 as the monarch is automatically one, and is made at the reigning monarch’s pleasure. New appointments are always made on St George’s Day, although there is no reason to believe this was the date of its inception, this is merely a much later idea of nationalist pride and not a true ‘tradition’. The emblem’s motto is famously Honi soit qui mal y pense or ‘Shame on him who thinks evil of it. Now nobody really knows why Edward III started this but there is a story and we should cover same. It seems the Countess of Salisbury was dancing at court in Calais when a garter slipped from her leg, to save her blushes and put a stop to the giggles from courtiers, the kind slipped it on his own leg and uttered the immortal words Honi soit qui mal y pense. This is simply the most popular of the stories. Another speaks of King Richard I who, while on the crusade to the Holy Land, ordered his knights to tie garters around their legs and when they won Edward III subsequently marked this with the order of the garter. The motto actually refers to Edward’s claim to the French throne, the order created to help pursue this claim. ETYMOLOGICALLY the four words have rather different roots giving a somewhat different meaning if we see Order as ‘to fit together’, which seems quite logical; ‘of’ was originally ‘off, away’; ‘the’ confusingly used to be ‘this,that’; and ‘garter’ is derived from an unknown root leading to the Old Welsh garr ‘leg’ and Old French jartier ‘bend of the knee’.

Order of the Bath – this began as the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath and was founded by George I on May 18th 1725. Its name comes from the elaborate ceremony involving bathing of a knight when appointed to this order of chivalry – the bath symbolised purification. It is often said George I revived the Order of the Bath but this is not possible as it never existed prior to then. It is awarded for service and is at the monarch’s pleasure. The award bears two mottos: TRIA IUNCTA IN UNO Latin for ‘THREE JOINED IN ONE’ and the German ICH DIEN ‘I serve’. ETYMOLOGICALLY the four words have rather different roots giving a somewhat different meaning if we see Order as ‘to fit together’, which seems quite logical; ‘of’ was originally ‘off, away’; ‘the’ confusingly used to be ‘this,that’; and ‘bath’ or ‘to warm’, is a little easier to see for no one wants to be immersed in cold water.

Distinguished Service Cross – renamed from the earlier Conspicuous Service Cross in October 1914, it was awarded to those of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and British Merchant Navy for “…gallantry during active operations against the enemy.” ETYMOLOGICALLY ‘distinguished’ is used in the ‘celebratory’ sense from 1714, coming to English through French from Latin where disinguere literally means ‘to separate between’ and is ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root ‘to push, thrust’; ‘service’ in a military sense is seen from the end of the 13th century, this from ‘serve’ and originally meant ‘to be a slave’; ‘cross’ is a strange word and may well have two quite separate etymologies, although no proof of same has ever been found - for the sense of the ‘X’ image, the religious image, and even the ‘irate’ sense, all seem to stem from a root meaning ‘thwart, hinder, oppose’ and quite literally as ‘cross purposes’, while there is undoubtedly a quite different sense in the Germanic languages epitomised by the Saxon ‘cross’ which was simply a marker and did not even have a cross piece until Christianity arrived in Britain.