Order of Merit "KMS", and the Order of Artistic Merit for Knights of Merit in Art, with the post-nominal letters "KMA". However, Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Royal Academy, advised against the new order, primarily because of its selection process. Victoria's son, King Edward VII, eventually founded the Order of Merit on 26 June 1902 (the date for which his coronation had been originally planned) as a means to acknowledge "exceptionally meritorious service in Our Navy and Our Army, or who may have rendered exceptionally meritorious service towards the advancement of Art, Literature and Science". All modern aspects of the order were
Order of Entrepreneurial Merit and Industrial Merit", the order was abolished with the founding of the Portuguese republic and reformulated in 1926. In 1991, it was renamed the "Order of Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial Merit" following the addition of a third class to recognise services rendered in connection with the trade and service sectors. Following legislation in 2011, the order received its present name, maintaining the three existing classes but extending the granting of the Commercial Class of Merit to the important tourism sector. Moreover, it is specifically provided for by the statutes of the order that it may be granted for the merit