When is an Award "official"

[Breguet]

When does an award become official ? When it is approved? When it is announced? Or when in is published/gazetted ?

Trust me not to give a simple answer.

"Official" would be the moment that a person was authorized to wear the ribbon of the decoration. In recent times the "announcement" and "gazetting" of awards has been almost simultaneous, but in the First World War we often see instances of an award being reported in Communiques a week or so before gazetting.

The situation becomes more complex when long delays occur between "approval", "announcement" and "gazetting". I have found this most evident with foreign awards. In Air 1 documents there are cases where French Army Orders formally announce that several named British/Commonwealth aviators have received a Croix de Guerre - yet formal announcement in the London Gazette does not take place for months and even years. I believe that if you check Goble's Croix de Guerre you will find that it was announced during the war but not gazetted until 1922 (at the same time as a similar award to D.M.B. Galbraith). G.O. Johnson (Canadian) wore a Croix de Guerre for several years before final gazetting occured about 1926.

Numerous White Russian awards to Allied personnel in 1919 were announced in Russian army orders, worn by the recipients - but never gazetted !

There is the case of an RCAF officer who was shot down during the Second World War, escaped a POW camp, and joined the Polish Resistance. The London-based Polish government-in-exile eventually awarded him two decorations - but by 1946 the REAL Polish government was that installed by the Communists and they refused to sanction an award that their rivals had inaugurated. RCAF authorities wrestled with the question as to whether the officer might wear the two gongs. The decision - worthy of Solomon - was that he could wear them, but that no gazetting would occur so as to avoid giving the Warsaw government cause to complain.

French Croix de Guerres awarded during the Second World War are a real puzzle, complicated because at one time there were two French governments-in-exile competing for authority, and the right to bestowe honours was implicit in the matter of legitimacy and authority.