Editing Order of Merit (section)

==Eligibility and appointment==
All citizens of the [[Commonwealth realm]]s are eligible for appointment to the Order of Merit.<ref name="gg.ca"/> There may be, however, only 24 living individuals in the order at any given time, not including honorary appointees, and new members are personally selected by the reigning monarch of the realms, currently [[Charles III]], with the assistance of his private secretaries;<ref name=Jackson/> the order has thus been described as "quite possibly, the most prestigious honour one can receive on planet Earth."<ref>{{cite web| last=Editorial Board| title=Order Worthy?| newspaper=National Post| date=15 July 2009| url=https://nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1791001| access-date=29 July 2009}}{{dead link|date=July 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} [https://www.pressreader.com/canada/national-post-latest-edition/20090715/281917359074501 Alt URL]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601115111/https://www.pressreader.com/canada/national-post-latest-edition/20090715/281917359074501 |date=1 June 2019 }}.</ref> Within the limited membership is a designated military division, with its own unique insignia; though it has not been abolished, it is currently unpopulated, [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma]] having been the last person so honoured.<ref name=Jackson/> 

Honorary members form another group, to which there is no numerical limit, though such appointments are rare; individuals from countries in the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] that are not headed by King Charles are therefore considered foreigners, and thus are granted only honorary admissions, such as [[Nelson Mandela]] (South Africa) and [[Mother Teresa]] (India).<ref name="RHOM" />

Upon admission into the Order of Merit, members are entitled to use the [[post-nominal letters]] ''OM'' and are entrusted with the [[badge]] of the order.