The Prince Carl Medal
The Prince Carl Medal. Photo: Alexis Daflos/Kungl. Hovstaterna
The Prince Carl Medal was instituted by King Gustaf V upon Prince Carl’s retirement from his position of President of the Swedish Red Cross in 1945. It is conferred in recognition of national or international humanitarian endeavours.
The medal is conferred on 1 December – the date on which it was instituted.
The medal is conferred in gold (gilded silver) in the eighth size, and since 1975 has been worn on the chest in a white-yellow-white ribbon with red edges.
The medal is seldomly conferred.
Prince Carl 1861-1951
Oscar Carl Wilhelm was born in February 1861. He was the son of Oskar II and Sofia of Nassau. Prince Carl was Duke of Västergötland.
After completing his schooling in 1880, he first studied at Uppsala and then attended the Royal War Academy in 1884–85. For two years he was second-in-command of the Mounted Life-Guardsmen. Because of their pale blue uniform, he came to be known as The Blue Prince.
In 1897 he married Princess Ingeborg of Denmark and the couple had three daughters. The daughters married into other royal houses – Margareta became Princess of Denmark, Märta Crown Princess of Norway and Astrid Queen of Belgium. The couple also had a son, Prince Carl.
In 1906, he assumed the presidency of the Board of Governors of the Swedish Red Cross, whose international aid activities earned him world renown. Prince Carl was made an honorary Doctor of Medicine in 1917 and an honorary member of the Swedish Society of Medicine in 1921. In 1945 he retired from the Board of Governors of the Red Cross, whereupon Gustaf V instituted the Prince Carl medal for meritorious humanitarian endeavours in his honour. The prince died in October 1951.
Prins Carl portrayed 1892. Photo from the archive of the Bernadotte Library.