My South Atlantic Medal followed me around 4 stations before being awarded to me 8 years late after I have received 2 other medals. I assumed, I hadn't qualified for it.
It was at in the Chief Clerks drawer, when I went in to sign for my promotion, he said "oh by the way, we found this medal for you" and slid it across his desk at me. Had my name stamped around the rim, so why hadn't they bothered to locate me on whatever unit it was passed to? Blunties!!

If the new medal does come in it will bring to an end the issue of medals which are among the longest to be continually issued to HM Forces. The RN LS & GC was instituted in 1831, and its current reverse design (a depiction of a three masted man of war) was introduced in 1848, an unbroken run of 167 years to date. The RAF LS & GC was instituted in 1919 and once again the reverse design has not changed since.

The original qualification period for the RAF medal was 18 years, this was only reduced to 15 years in 1977. Prior to 1947 the medal was not awarded to officers, subsequently they could receive it if they had at least 12 years service before being commissioned. RN officers could only receive their LS & GC after 1981, with the same requirement for previous non-commissioned service.

I understand that recent issues of the RAF LS & GC have been in silver plate, not silver. It would be nice if the new medal was in silver, but I'm not optimistic!

How can you tell a difference?

Oh yes - just look at sterling silver cutlery alongside some electro-plate, or an old silver shilling, for example. Deeper - and slightly duller - complexion, I'd say.

Silver in this country is of sterling standard, which is 92.5% pure. Silver plating is done with as near as dammit 100% pure silver. As wheurhappy points out, there is a noticeable difference in the colour - the silver plated ones look more "glitzy".

This is all part of a depressing reduction in the quality of medals. The current issue of OBEs and MBEs which are made by a well-known firm of medallists which I will not mention are of very poor quality compared to the earlier versions which were either produced by The Royal Mint or Garrards, the crown jewellers. Even the boxes are cheap and nasty compared with the old plush lined cases.

And as for the 2002 QGJM - words fail me!!!!

Indeed - I'm still trying to get the chocolate out of mine!

There's only one problem with the new long service medal announcement and that's the election.

Mr Fallon can announce what he wants but unless the incoming government agrees, the medal - like the budget - will just be so much meaningless chatter.

There then comes the thorny issue of historical eligibility. Is it to be awarded to those no longer in service but who had met the criterion for length of service of the new medal when they were active? Alternatively, is the counting to begin only at the time of the medal's initiation.

At the moment, it's possible to mix qualification times for some medals but not 'double dip'. Certain classes of reserve have been - unreasonably in my view - ineligible for things like the jubilee medals or any long service award. In my view all classes of reserve and regular need to have similar eligibility for awards. I accept, as has happened in other cases, that warlike operations are deemed to count double. Regulars do 15 years, cadet forces uniformed staff 12 years and volunteers ten - bag of nails!!

Then we come to the design of the medal and its ribbon - we need a new thread to discuss every possible permutation. The current Mrs O-D recalls the days when the correspondence on whether WRAF warrant officers should wear black or brown leather gloves filled several files worth. It didn't matter really 'cause they did away with the WRAF shortly afterwards.

Old Duffer

BEagle,

You need to remove the suspension ring and mounting lug, then heat the medal, turn it upside down. The chocolate then pours out.

It's Belgian milk, however and a bit tainted now.

:ok:;) klkl l;kdk ;;l;l

Well, as in many cases we are following our Commonwealth partners. Canada has had an all ranks, all Services, Regular and Reserve long service medal for nearly 70 years.

The Kiwis have an LSGC system based on our own but, according to the NZDF website, they introduced a long service medal for commissioned ranks back in the Eighties. Not a bad looking gong either. They even backdated the qualifying service from 1985 to nearly 8 years.

I think the Kiwi system is a fairly happy medium, albeit still fairly radical for the UK.

Another New Medal
 

And now...The Ebola Medal

There is a precedent for this in the award of the Hong Kong Plague Medal of 1894, which was awarded to civilians and servicemen present at the time. It is very scarce, only a few hundred were awarded to service personnel. It was not permitted to be worn in uniform but I hope that this new medal will be authorised for wear with other medals.

I see that the contract has gone to Worcestershire Medals, which is encouraging. I have always found their products to be of a good standard, unlike those of certain other medallists I could name.

Any news on the GSM 2008 that receives a brief mention in the JSP as being notified in early 2015?

Wasn't there a rumour that there was going to be a "Cold War" medal?

You dont want to believe everything P - N says ;)

Like the Arctic Convoy and BC medals/clasps, they are waiting until we are nearly all dead, to keep down the cost...................

The DIN for the new GSM 2008 has finally hit the streets, but focusing mostly on the principle of the medal rather than the detail. Won't say anymore yet here as I think there will be a formal announcement, but for those serving it's on the DIN website.

Edited to add: 2015DIN09-022 General Service Medal 2008 refers.

Got a DIN ref number? I couldn't see anything on there...:confused:

If you have access the intranet, it should be the latest DIN to be published. As mentioned, no detailed criteria but contains a nice'ish graphic of the green/purple ribbon and the reverse of Britannia & Lion. Slightly more interesting than the reverse on the last GSM, fwiw.

One point on the new medal that sprung to mind - why, if in the DIN when it states the purpose the GSM is to fill a gap in metallic recognitin when an event doesn't warrant an OSM or campaign medal, does the medal state 'For Campaign Service' on the back?

What's the difference between an operation, a campaign and a sub-operation/campaign? If it's linked to scale, duration, intensity then why did 13 years in Afghanistan warrant an Operational Service Medal whilst Iraq was a campaign medal?