Order of Civil Merit
The Order for Civil Merit ( French: Decoration civique ) was founded by the Belgian King Leopold II on July 21, 1867 and was “a reward for long years of service to the state in municipal etc. offices, as well as for excellent courageous and self-sacrificing actions and in general for outstanding deeds in the sense of general philanthropy ”. In addition, loyal service was honored with a lower class award and 35 years in the public service with the upper cross class award for a period of 25 years.
On July 20, 1856, King Leopold I had already created an award for officers with 25 years of service. The award looked like the later cross. A green ribbon with a red border was used here. From 1860 onwards, King Leopold I introduced a slightly modified cross for the Garde nationale ou civique. The ribbon that went with it was a red one with three green stripes. The median was kept narrow compared to the others.
Order classes
The order had five classes and it was differentiated by two different departments in the cross and medal. Of the five classes, two were decorated with the cross and three with the medal.
Order decoration
The decoration of the first section consists of a white enamelled eight-pointed St. John's Cross with a gold / silver border. The round center shield of the cross is framed by a gold / silver border and shows the donor's initial L. in gold / silver on a white enamelled field . In the corners of the cross there is an inclined lily cross.
The decoration of the second division was medals for the third to fifth grades.
The decoration is also an eight-pointed cross like that of the first section, but the cross angles are filled in neutrally.
Ribbon
Four different ribbons belonged to the order. Depending on the order class, two ribbons were part of the award. Once it was striped in four dark red and three black stripes and the other time the ribbon was made in two black stripes with a yellow border.