On 11th June 2003, in answer to a Written Question in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister announced that the award of the Naval General Service Medal 1915-62 and the General Service Medal 1918-62 with a new clasp for service in the Suez Canal Zone between 16th October 1951 and 19th October 1954.
Applying for the medal
Veterans of the Canal Zone, or the next-of-kin of those who have died, should apply in writing to the MOD Medal Office, giving full name, date of birth and Service number. As with the initial issue of all other British campaign awards there will be no charge for the medal. There has been criticism in the Press about delays in issuing these medals, which was caused by a backlog of initial applications received in the latter half of 2003. At peak, the medal offices received over 2,000 applications in a week. Since then over 40,000 cases have been reviewed and the waiting list has been reduced substantially. It is anticipated that all outstanding cases will be dealt with within the next few months.
The address of the medal office is as follows:
AFPAA (JPAC)
MOD Medal Office
Building 250
RAF Innsworth
Gloucester
GL3 1HW
Email: JPAC@afpaa.mod.uk
Fax: 0141 224 3586
Free Phone: 0800 085 3600
Overseas Civ: +44 (0) 141 224 3600
They will acknowledge every application on receipt. In common with other campaign medals, all applications will be dealt with strictly in the order that they are received. Although the backlog has been substantially reduced in recent months please be prepared for a wait.
A dedicated Canal Zone new section has been established at the Medal Office and all the available resources are concentrating on recovering the necessary Service files from the Departmental archives, checking individual eligibility and preparing medals for despatch. All cases are being dealt with as quickly as possible.
Checking eligibility
It is a basic principle of the Honours and Awards system that medals are not issued unless qualification has been proved from official records. Regrettably, there is a lack of detail in many Service records of the 1950s and some people who believe their service qualified them for a medal and clasp will not be able to receive them because of the absence of satisfactory evidence.
This does not mean that individuals' Records of Service have been lost or destroyed. Very few Service files are mislaid. In most cases where they are not held in the archives, and therefore not immediately available, it is because they are already in use elsewhere, perhaps by the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency for use in assessment for a War Pension, or similar.
However, medals will only be issued if it can be proved from official evidence that an individual was in the right place at the right time for the necessary minimum period. It is known that some records of service give only general statements of where people served and corroboration will need to be sought from other records.
Medals are not issued automatically. If the medal offices are unable to confirm eligibility, a medal will not be awarded.
This is common to all applications for campaign medals and nothing to get alarmed about. There is no difficulty in the vast majority of cases, but it depends on what is contained in the records.
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