Wikipedia:WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medals

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Welcome to the WikiProject of Orders, decorations, and medals
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Featured content Category policies

"Men will fight long and hard for a piece of coloured ribbon."

Welcome! Are you interested in orders, decorations and medals? Would you like to improve Wikipedia's coverage on this topic? Then we would like to invite you to help us in our project!

Message board[edit]

The content of this old message board section has been moved to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medals § Message board archive. New messages should be posted at the talk page.

Project Priorities[edit]


Project Banner[edit]

Add the Project banner {{WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medals}} to the talk page all relevant articles.

Stubs[edit]

Add {{Orders-medals-stub}} to all relevant stub articles.

Categorisation[edit]

Content[edit]

  • Add Template:Infobox Military Award to all decorations and medals articles.
  • Develop articles for standardised presentation of each nation's national honours system.

Scope[edit]



This WikiProject aims to

  1. To thoroughly explore national orders, decorations, and medals, along with their associated national honours systems, both globally and historically.
  2. To improve related articles.
  3. To provide a place to discuss common issues on orders, decorations, and medals related pages.
  4. Organise, discuss, and categorise Category:Orders, decorations, and medals by country
  5. To ensure all pages meet the standards of Wikipedia:Cite sources.
  6. Develop standards and templates for orders, decorations, and medals related articles.

Related WikiProjects[edit]

How to Contribute[edit]



How you can help depends on your time, resources and interest:

Expand articles[edit]

  • Add Infoboxes to articles.
  • Upload images to the WikiMedia:Commons and add images to all orders, decorations, and medals pages.
  • Add external links to websites with additional information about the subject of an article and respect the rules regarding copyright violations.
  • Check references and cite sources for articles.
  • Expand orders, decorations, and medals stub articles into full articles.

Improve articles[edit]

Communicate[edit]

Help for Authors[edit]


Article naming[edit]

Two main issues arise here: How we should deal with multiple instances of the same medal name, as awarded by different countries, and how foreign medals, which have their own non-English names, should be named.

Disambiguation[edit]

In any case where the same name is shared, disambiguation is the key. To take an example, a medal by the name of the Cross of Valour is awarded by both Australia and Canada. As a result we turn this page into a disambiguation page, as per the usual Wikipedia disambiguation guidelines. The medals in question are then moved to individual pages, named according to the convention Medal Name (Country). Therefore the Australian medal is to be found at Cross of Valour (Australia) and the Canadian at Cross of Valour (Canada). The disambiguation qualifier should always adopt the conventional short form of the country's name, never an abbreviation or initials - eg United Kingdom, not Great Britain or UK; United States, not US, USA, America, etc.

Non-English language awards[edit]

The basic rule is that the names of foreign-language awards should be translated into English except where there is an established track-record of referring to it by its foreign-language name. Therefore we use Iron Cross in favour of "Eiserne Kreuz", Pour le Mérite in favour of "For the Merit" or "Merit Award", and Param Vir Chakra in favour of "Bravest of the Brave Award". This effectively means that the article will reside at the customary English-language name. Having said this, editors are encouraged to create redirects for all reasonable permutations and variations on the name, whether in English or in the native language.

Selecting the right category[edit]

The main category for this topic is Category:Orders, decorations, and medals. This should not be used for articles about individual orders, decorations, or medals - instead these should be directed to the appropriate national sub-category. Only articles of pan-national importance or those dealing with the topic itself should be placed in the main category.

For further details see the WikiProject category policy.

Stub articles[edit]

If your article is a stub, please add the following stub template to the bottom of the article.

All articles tagged with this stub will appear in Category:Order, decoration, and medal stubs.

Project Templates[edit]

Please use the Template:Infobox Military Award in all articles relating to decorations and medals. This provides all the key information in a smart, easily accessible format. Other Project templates can be found here - feel free to add to this list if you develop your own templates.

WikiProject banner[edit]

Put the Project template, {{WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medals}}, on the talk page of articles related to this Wikiproject. This will display:

WikiProject iconOrders, decorations, and medals NA‑class
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medals, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of orders, decorations, and medals on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.
NAThis article has been rated as NA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

All article talk pages tagged with this banner will appear in Category:WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medals articles.

WikiProject sub-pages[edit]

Useful resources[edit]

Participants[edit]



New participants, sign your name at the bottom of this list (~~~~), and leave a short note of your particular area of interest:


WikiProject User Box[edit]

The WikiProject User Box:

Code Result Usage
{{User WP ODM}}
This user is a participant in
WikiProject Orders, decorations, and medals.
WikiProject Orders, Decorations, and Medals userbox

Featured Content[edit]


Featured Article Candidates[edit]

Submit or comment on articles under consideration for Wikipedia:Featured article candidates.
Current Featured article nominations:

Current Featured article reviews: none

Featured Image Candidates[edit]

Submit or comment on articles under consideration for Wikipedia:Featured image candidates.
Current Featured image nominations :None at present

Current Featured Articles[edit]


Belarus[edit]

Hero of Belarus

Poland[edit]

Virtuti Militari

Ukraine[edit]

Hero of Ukraine

United Kingdom and Commonwealth[edit]

Victoria Cross

Australia[edit]

Victoria Cross for Australia

Canada[edit]

Order of Canada, Victoria Cross (Canada)

New Zealand[edit]

Victoria Cross for New Zealand

United Kingdom[edit]

Victoria Cross, Order of the Garter, Order of the Thistle, Order of St Patrick, Order of the Bath

United States[edit]

Medal of Honor (de-listed May 2012, working on getting it up to GA status), Marine Corps Brevet Medal

Current Featured Topics[edit]


Victoria Cross medals

Current Featured Images[edit]



None at present.

Most Wanted[edit]



List 'most wanted' articles.

Tools[edit]

Main tool page: toolserver.org
  • Reflinks - Edits bare references - adds title/dates etc. to bare references
  • Checklinks - Edit and repair external links
  • Dab solver - Quickly resolve ambiguous links.
  • Peer reviewer - Provides hints and suggestion to improving articles.

See also[edit]