The Military Medal GV

Description: silver, 36mm diameter, with a swivelling suspension. This gallantry award has been issued with six different obverses for the three monarchs since its inception in 1916. Our illustrated example is the most frequently encountered; that of King George the V, uncrowned, in Field Marshal's uniform. The vast majority of this type were issued for acts of bravery during the First Word War. The medal reverse depicts the crowned royal cypher over the words "FOR BRAVERY IN THE FIELD" all within a laurel wreath.
    The Military Medal was instituted by Royal Warrant on the 25th March 1916 to be awarded for "acts of gallantry and devotion to duty performed by non-commissioned officers and men of our army in the field" ¹. Some retrospective awards were made. Women were included (by an amendment of the 21st July 1916) whether British subjects or not for "bravery and devotion under fire". A  bar was issued for subsequent awards and a silver rosette could be worn when the ribbon alone was worn to denote the award of a bar. The award of the Military Medal was announced officially in the London Gazette hence this is the source for verification of this award. This "LG" notification was generally published as a straightforward list of names but with the recipients home town included from September 1917. Unfortunately the citation is not published, and the original documentation recording citations has not survived <sup>notes
1. Quoting the Royal Warrant - Amended in 1920 to ""any of our military forces" and to include allied armies.
2. Other commonwealth citations may be recorded in the relevant countries archives, but for UK forces the archives were destroyed during the London Blitz in 1940.</sup>