as the order of merit is open to the citizens of sixteen different countries, each with their own system of orders, decorations, and medals, the order's place of precedence varies from country to country. while in the united kingdom, members rank below knights and dames grand cross of the order of the bath, it has been claimed by stanley martin, in his book "the order of merit 1902-2002: one hundred years of matchless honour", that the order of merit is actually the pinnacle of the british honours system. similarly, though it was not listed in the canadian order of precedence for honours, decorations, and medals until december 2010, except relating to those who were appointed to the order prior to 1 june 1972, both christopher mccreery, an expert on canadian honours and secretary to the lieutenant governor of nova scotia, and rafal heydel-mankoo, an editor of "burke's peerage", stated that the order of merit was the highest civilian award for merit a canadian could receive.