Not to qibble, but the federal railway was always a "Crown Corporation," from the day it went into service between Truro and Moncton in November of 1872 as the Intercolonial Railway. Also, service at that time for railway men would have included the Northwest Rebellion and the Boer War. The citation from the Home Office in Whitehall reads: "I am commanded by the King to transmit to you herewith an Imperial Service Medal in recognition of your meritorious service as an officer in the Department of Railways and Canals (Home town stated)and I am to request that you will acknowledge the receipt of the decoration and and will sign the acknowledgement with your Christian names in full." Signed by the Secretary of the Imperial Service Order. Jay Underwood Elmsdale NS > > From: "Dan MacDonald" <brikwall@nbnet.nb.ca> > Date: 2007/05/12 Sat PM 08:54:22 EDT > To: <newbrunswick@rootsweb.com> > Subject: Re: [ NB ] Imperial Service Order Medal - recipients where found? > > I would agree with you, if this medal had indeed been awarded for WAR service. It was not. > > It was awarded for 25 years of long service and good conduct in the CIVIL SERVICE. Military service, or any type of service on the home front in time of war, had nothing to do with this medal or its award. > > I believe it was first awarded in 1911, and awards to Canadians continued into the reign of George VI (1936-1952). Awards to British government employees continues to this day. > > The only distinction that's made for recipients is that time of service was reduced to either 15 or 20 years (I don't recall which) for civil servants who served in the colonies (ie: Africa, India - service in Canada did not count towards the reduced time). > > Also, railway employees were not the only people receiving it (and they only started receiving it after the railway became a Crown Corporation). It could be given to anyone from customs workers to ferry deckhands to Ottawa beancounters, as long as they worked for the Crown (federal government) for the required amount of time. It was actually a fairly common award. It's just that, in the Maritimes, the majority of recipients happened to be railway employees. > > Besides, what was laughable was neither the award nor the conditions behind it but the fact that a common award for lower-tier government employees was written up as a "distinguished honour from the King." Embellishment, to say the least. > > Regards, > > Dan MacDonald > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: jp.underwood@ns.sympatico.ca > To: newbrunswick@rootsweb.com > Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2007 8:10 PM > Subject: Re: [ NB ] Imperial Service Order Medal - recipients where found? > > > I think it would be wrong to dismiss the medal awarded to railway men for their service during the First World War as "laughable". As I note in my last book "Built For War: Canada's Intercolonial Railway" (Railfare-DC Books, Montreal) after the "submarine scare" in the Gulf of St. Lawrence effectively ended convoys out of Quebec City, the line between Levis, Que. and Halifax became the main artery of the Canadian war effort, and the employees - including the shop men at Moncton - worked long hours to ensure nothing intrerrupted that traffic, including the return trips for the wounded and repatriated soldiers. > I think the medal serves as a reminder that war can be "he--" on the homefront too, and they also served who stayed and worked the line! > Jay Underwood > Elmsdale NS > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NEWBRUNSWICK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >From Railfare-DC Books: http://www.railfare.net/From%20Folly%20to%20Fortune.html http://railfare.net/builtforwar.html Visit the Nova Scotia Railway Hall of Fame: http://www.nsrwyhalloffame.com/ Visit the Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society: http://novascotiarailwayheritage.com/