Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

A point about medals.... You may have a rellie who served in the Suez Canal Zone in the late 1940s and early 1950s and they should have a medal for that service.

They wouldn't take me in WW2 'cos I was under-age, but I did serve a couple of years in the Suez Canal Zone in the early 50s. This before the Suez Crisis of 1956. For many years the MOD refused to acknowledge military service there. They insisted it was not an 'Active Service Zone' even though we came back with less men than we went out with due to 'enemy' action. If you wanted a medal you went to Korea or Malaya etc!

Recently after much lobbying this attitude changed and there is now a medal for soldiers who served in the Canal Zone and 'got sand in their shoes' before the withdrawal and the subsequent Suez Crisis of 1956 following the President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal.

So if you have someone who was out there, Regular or National Service, make sure they claim the medal!
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Defen ... Office.htm

Further to the previous post; I have recently obtained for a client, the General Sevice Medal with "Canal Zone" bar. The process being surprisingly straight forward and much to my amazement, prompt!

http://www.suezcanalzone.com/czmedal.html

Mark

Great to know two of our wonderful forum members have been able to acquire these and pass on the benefit of their experiences, an incentive to others who might be eligible, go for it, you deserve it.