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I have been skiving today, but with good reason. Avşar Ibar was kind enough to send me a copy of his book Ottoman Empire’s Order of the Medjidie and Order of the Osmanie, and I curled up in the sun to write a review of it.
Normal service will be resumed next week.
I’m back! Sorry, last weekend got a bit busy…
Today I’ve added the short-lived Ulster Defence Regiment Medal for Long Service and Good Conduct. This was awarded to full-time members of the regiment, part-timers received a different medal which I shall present later on. Also, we have the Volunteer Officer’s Decoration, the first in a whole series of awards for reservist officers who, unlike their regular service brothers, received long service awards. This one was awarded between 1892 and 1908 (when the Volunteer Reserve was renamed the Territorial Force), and conferred the post-nominal letters VD.
Today I added the Volunteer Long Service Medal, awarded for service in the ranks of the volunteers. Some authorities claim that there are TWO medals: this one and the Volunteer Long Service Medal for India and the Colonies… but there wasn’t a separate Royal Warrant to institute the second, merely an Army Order. Interestingly, the reverse remained constant, it was the way in which the relevant monarch’s titles were inscribed around their portrait on the obverse that differed! The Medals Year Book, which I’m using as the primary guide for this survey of British Medals, has it as a single award with variants, so that’s how it has been presented here.
More reservist awards today (and plenty more to come!), with the Territorial Decoration for officers and the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal for other ranks. These were relatively short-lived, 1908-1930, reflecting changes in the names of reserve organisations.
In 1908, the Volunteers were renamed the Territorial Force, which also included the Yeomanry (mainly rural volunteer cavalry units). There was also a separate Militia, which became the Special Reserve. In 1930, the Territorial Force became the Territorial Army (and new awards were produced to reward service therin)… but more of those next time!
This afternoon I added the Territorial Efficiency Medal, a short-lived award (1921-1930) used when the name of the Territorial Force was changed to Territorial Army (so they needed to change the wording on the reverse).
Next is the Efficiency Decoration, instituted in 1930. This has quite a few variations, especially as it now has an inscription on the top brooch which changed from TERRITORIAL to T&AVR (Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve) in 1969 and back to TERRITORIAL in 1982. This resulted in a ribbon change in 1969 as well, although it was kept on after 1982, and of course Honourable Artillery Company officers had their special ribbon (and at last I’ve found some specimens to show you!). Now this decoration was also awarded to officers in the Indian Volunteer Forces and the Colonial Auxiliary Forces – which led to a vast array of different top brooches, although I’ve only found a single CANADA one so far. The search continues…
Next time, the Efficiency Medal awarded to other ranks 1930-2000, which also has a lot of variants to hunt down 🙂
Today I have been sifting through literal mountains of Efficiency Medals (there are over 30 variants for the first issue King George VI one alone!) and will begin posting them next time.
Added the George V Efficiency Medals – 19 variations!
More Efficiency Medals – all 31 variations of the first type George VI, while he held the title of Emperor of India before 1947.
Guess what? Even MORE Efficiency Medals – this time the 25 variations awarded under George VI after 1947, when India had become independent and so ‘Emperor of India’ was dropped from George’s official titles. There are quite a few gaps, alas… but I have, in my hunting, found some more Efficiency Decoration variants to add.
Next time, the Efficiency Medal during the reign of Elizabeth II.
Phew! At last all the listings for every variation of the Efficiency Medal are up. Sorry about the lack of images, it’s proving quite hard to find all the variations in the wild.
Next, the Army Emergency Reserve…
Today I’ve added the Army Emergency Reserve Decoration and Efficiency Medal, used to mark the services of officers and other ranks in the short-lived Army Emergency Reserve. Also, another short-lived award, the Imperial Yeomanry Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Oddly, despite these awards being short-lived and having relatively few recipients, I managed to find all the images I wanted!
Today’s batch are the Militia Long Service and Good Conduct Medal and the Special Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, both of which were discontinued in 1930 when the Efficiency Medal was introduced (although until the 1950s there was a MILITIA version of the Efficiency Medal).
And then… in 1999, along came the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal. A single medal to anyone, officer or other rank (enlisted), who served in any branch of the volunteer military for 10 years! Not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, it’s been fun figuring out all the variations. Of course, there’s one exception to this uniformity, members of the Honourable Artillery Company still receive their medals on a special ribbon!
Now here’s a thing. On 26 March 2015, it was announced that anyone with 10 years service in the volunteers could use the post-nominal letters VR… but it wasn’t linked to the qualifying regulations for the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal, so you could write VR after your name before you qualified for and received the medal.
I am on holiday next week and won’t be near a computer, so expect to hear from me the following week.
I’m back now, after a visit to Turkey where I didn’t see a single medal 🙁
Today’s addition: the Indian Long Service & Good Conduct Medal for Europeans, 1848. This was awarded to Europeans serving in the ranks of the Indian Army until 1872 (after which they got the Army LS&GC medal like everyone else).
I’ve been distracted by a HUGE number of American medals received from our member Robin Nicholson (el_jefe52), so made a start on them with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency awards, and sorting out the Civil Air Patrol section as well as adding new images he’d sent. There are plenty of miniatures there, as the CAP tend to issue ‘ribbon-only’ awards but have designed a medal which may be purchased in miniature for wear on mess dress.
There’s loads more to come… Thanks, Robin!
More of Robin Nicholson’s excellent contributions today: some more Civil Air Patrol, the Defense Contract Audit Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
And for this last, I’m puzzled. We have an image in the database that says it’s the DIA Meritorious Civilian Service Medal. The few sources online that I can find confirm its identity. But Robin – a very reliable source – has sent a different image which he says is the DIA Meritorious Civilian Service Medal. This indentification is borne out by the reverse actually being inscribed DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY AWARD FOR MERITORIOUS CIVILIAN SERVICE – that’s pretty clear! However, those few online sources all give the ribbon on this beast as being that of the DIA Excellent Service Medal… can you see why I am confused?
So, if Robin’s medal is the DIA Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, is it on the correct ribbon? And if so, what is the image that’s in the database already? I wonder if the Defense Intelligence Agency will tell me? Worth an e-mail, I suppose.
Query-1 is Robin’s medal. Query-2 is the one we have in the database. Can anyone help me sort this out?
And now you see a little of what goes on behind the scenes. You may think I’m a bit slow, only putting up a few medals each week, but I am making certain that everything I post here is as correct as I can make it!
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