With reference to the alleged "Long Service" medal for Officers. Logic dictates that there should be a date of commencement for the qualification rather than a cut off point for service. The award being a "Queen's medal", there being no precedent, should commence for serving Officers at her coronation and the first qualification date would be in 1968. This should remove the argument over entitlement. the 2014 arbitrary date was conjured out of nowhere. Numbers of awards are far less than the thousands of W.O.s SNCOs and airmens' medals issued over the same time period.

Dougie M,

An interesting 'take' on the eligibility issue. However, until about 198???? the qualifying period for the LS&GCM was 18 years, so a little 'fettling' might be required.

That said, there is some suggestion that the date set was in some measure related to cost of 'legacy' awards but the situation is that an officer who might have qualified in the past, would often have been subject to a more rigorous code of conduct than is now the case (eg more lenient view of drink driving and the politely called - social misconduct). It could be argued that in the past one was more deserving of the award than is now the case.

A further issue with officers no longer in the RAF, is how to assess their conduct and what sort of appeals process might there be - say - from somebody invited to leave the RAF for an offence which might now warrant no more than an interview without coffee.

Old Duffer - 30 plus years - (as my mother said of my father) - for undetected crime!

Phil is sporting a full set of Good Conduct bars so past performance . . .

Ah.......... but PN, this is a clear case of 'one law for us and another for them'!

Just think of what might be made of your future King's earlier conduct (and I understand by his own admission!!).

O-D (packing a case, lest I am called to the tower (of London, not Sleaford)

OD, I guess Andy and Ed will be wearing them too though I see Andy in civvies more often than not.

Probably the same problem many of us have - uniforms shrinking in the wardrobe..........

There is a precedent there. An earlier long serving Prince of Wales put it about a great deal while waiting for his mother to vacate the throne, and all the while he was supposedly respectably married to the future Queen Alexandra. By all accounts as King Edward VII he was generally respected as a monarch.

Going off at a tangent, as a young Scots Guardsman my father was on parade for the funeral of Queen Alexandra. Quite a link to a bygone age.

Ah........... TTH, how right you are. However, Andy has been promoted several times and is now a Vice Admiral, I understand. Surely a 'prince of the blood royal' does not just shove - or get a flunky to shove - his uniform at a tailor to be re ranked. One would hope he would get a new one. Mind you, his sister's husband is a real Vice Admiral, so perhaps they share a hat.

Old Duffer

O-D, KGVI didn't get a new No 1 when they changed to 3 buttons, he had the tunic shortened with the join hidden under the belt.