RHODESIAN INDEPENDENCE COMMEMARATIVE MEDAL

Extracted from ORAFS Website in the interests of ALL ex-Rhodesians.(Thanks Eddie)

Distributed to ORAFs and Friends at the request of Peter Petter-Bowyer.
Direct all correspondence to Vic Walker on vw006c0697@blueyonder.co.uk

"Arising from a recommendation given by Rev. Terry Mesley-Spong in 2006, Brig. David Heppenstall very recently brought about the establishment of a committee to investigate the desirability and interest for a medal to be known as The Rhodesian Independence Commemorative Medal (RICM).
Clearly the introduction of an RICM is very late in coming but there is a need to accept that ‘late is better than never’.
The purpose of the RICM is to give to those who gave services in support of their cherished country the opportunity to declare and expose their pride in having done so. Such service came not from the military alone, but from every walk of life and from Rhodesians of all colour. Each knows where his or her heart and efforts lay through the troubled years in which Rhodesia ’s affairs were a focal point between antagonists either side of the Iron Curtain.
The RICM is not an official, government-approved and gazetted item. It is one being developed by a Rhodesian joint forces committee in UK with associates in Australia , New Zealand and RSA. Once available, interested individual Rhodesians will be able to order and pay for his/her own medal. The cost of the RICM and postage is not yet established but it is hoped to keep this as low as possible, without producing a cheap and inferior quality medal.
There is no limit to who can own and wear an RICM, providing he/she expended efforts to the benefit of Rhodesia ’s well being. Consider the farmers and their wives facing perils whilst continuing to uphold the agricultural sector upon which we were all dependent. railway operators, firemen, Red Cross and field caterering volunteers, doctors, nurses, hospital workers, civil servants, postmen, electrical maintenance men and water engineers are just a very small cross-section of a society that provided vital inputs to keep our independent country running efficiently for 15 years during which the world at large sought to destroy it.
Whereas our servicemen gained medals in service and proudly wear them on appropriate occasions, there is nothing for other deserving Rhodesians to show on those same occasions. Consider the wife who upheld her serving husband through the troubled times. Was she awarded for her vital but silent service? No! But maybe she would like to stand next to her be-medalled man when next he wears his gongs and proudly display her own.
The Committee will keep the various Rhodesian Associations around the world up to date on progress and hope to be in a position to circulate a drawing of the proposed medal, showing both obverse and reverse in the very near future."

Vic Walker
vw006c0697@blueyonder.co.uk