decorations and medals

Rewards for merit in the form of medals have been known since the days of the Roman empire and in the last two centuries have proliferated for both soldiers and civilians. In the military context, decorations and medals fall broadly into five categories: the badges of orders of chivalry, decorations for gallantry, decorations for distinguished service, medals for participation in particular campaigns, and medals for long service and good conduct. Rome awarded medals according to rank and this practice has been followed in some nations until comparatively recently, with the notable exceptions of gallantry and campaign awards. Commemorative medals have been produced by artists since before the Renaissance, but while these frequently commemorated military events, few have been conferred or worn as reward-based decorations.

The world of the warrior is one in which comradeship and the brotherhood of arms is encouraged and this, together with notions of nationhood, encouraged the growth of orders of chivalry in the medieval period. Initially military orders for knights, as the term suggests, only much later were they widened to include civilians on their merits or birth. Orders served a number of purposes initially, some of which are still maintained. Not only did their conferral reward perceived merit, but it also bound the recipient closely to the fount of honour, his sovereign, thus creating an inner circle of reliable warriors dependent upon the monarch, while those outside the circle could be cajoled by the prospect of membership. The earliest European orders of chivalry were single-class awards distributed in very limited quantities. Some, like the British Order of the Garter founded in 1348 and the Danish Order of the Elephant (1464), have maintained this exclusivity but now have a less specifically military purpose. The now-defunct French Order of St Michael (1469) and the Habsburg Order of the Golden fleece (1429) fell into similar categories.

The establishment of a second rank of orders, often specifically to reward military service, was a product of the late 17th and 18th centuries and produced the Orders of St Louis (France 1692), the Bath (Britain, revived 1725), the Sword (Sweden 1748), and St George (Russia 1769). The Order of St Louis and the later French Order of Military Merit were replaced by the Légion d'Honneur in 1802, although the distinctive scarlet of their ribbons was retained, so associated was it with the recognition of military merit. Eighty-seven per cent of the members of the Légion d'Honneur were servicemen by 1814. Its stratified nature was copied in Britain with the reorganization of the Order of the Bath into three classes in 1814 and one division of that order became solely for award to army and navy officers. Prussia restricted her Order for Merit to military personnel in 1810. The creation of these late orders of chivalry proliferated in European nations in the 19th century and was emulated by emergent aspirant nations in their spheres of influence. Few of these newer orders recognized specifically military merit or service because, at the same time, other categories of decorations and medals were being developed for that purpose.

Warriors who had performed acts of gallantry were probably those who received the earliest types of decoration and instances of such awards are recorded from imperial Rome. After the development of heraldry, it would not be uncommon for a knight who had performed with prominent gallantly in battle to have his arms augmented by a ‘charge’ celebrating the fact. During the 16th century European monarchs often awarded gold chains and medals to victorious commanders and this became particularly prevalent in the 17th century, especially for naval commanders. By the mid-18th century a distinction was being drawn between awards for individual acts of gallantry and those for distinguished service in a battle or campaign. The practice arose in Europe for gallant individuals, particularly if they were—as they often were—of low rank, to receive immediate promotions (battlefield commissions, for example, in the case of ordinary soldiers) or grants of money, or, if appropriate, suitable disability pensions. Some received unique medals or other marks of recognition of their bravery. Napoleon set great store by the award of the grade of Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur for battlefield gallantry and Prussia's Iron Cross, founded in 1813, fulfilled the same purpose, as did the first American decoration, the Purple Heart. With the French Médaille Militaire (1852) and the British Distinguished Conduct Medal (1854) and Victoria Cross (1856), the basis of a European system of gallantry medals was established and it was copied elsewhere, the American Congressional Medal of Honor being somewhat over-awarded for lack of an alternative during the civil war of 1861-5. In some countries, notably Britain, different gallantry medals were awarded to officers and to ordinary soldiers, divisions largely abolished in the 1990s.

The concept of different degrees of bravery, suitably awarded, merges almost imperceptibly into the notion of awards for distinguished service. As mentioned above, meritorious service over a period had long been recognized and the practice of rewarding it with medals and chains, usually of gold and usually for commanders, derives from the 16th century. By the 18th century, military orders existed to reward it and, where these orders were stratified into classes, the lower classes would usually be the means by which distinguished services or leadership by mid-ranking officers would be recognized. Gold medals were instituted in Britain for Royal Naval commanders in the 1790s and, after 1806, for military officers of field rank (major) and above, who distinguished themselves in specific actions. These awards ceased in 1814 and British officers who distinguished themselves in a campaign thereafter generally received a junior grade of an Order of Chivalry, usually the Companionship of the Order of the Bath (CB). Such awards tended to be cheapened by their proliferation, particularly in the numerous colonial campaigns of the late 19th century, and so the institution of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1886 rectified the situation. Awards for distinguished or meritorious service for all ranks developed during the 19th century and, like other types of decoration, have tended to proliferate during the 20th century as qualifying definitions have loosened.

In the case of medals awarded solely for participation in a particular campaign, it is difficult to determine which were the earliest. The extent to which such awards were true campaign medals, rather than commemorative ones (purchased by the individual, for example) or minor rewards for particular service is similarly vague. Medals were worn in the 17th century by both Dutch and Swedish troops engaged in the Thirty Years War, and British parliamentarian troops who fought at Dunbar in 1650 were awarded a medal for that event. Campaign medals became common in the 18th century, awarded by the Austrians for their campaign of 1706-7, by the Russians for the battles of Liesna (1708) and Poltava, and by Prussia for the battle of Lissa (1757). The British East India Company awarded medals to its Indian troops for campaigns in the 1780s and 1790s and led the way in British campaign medal development with medals for the first Afghan war and the Sind Campaign of 1843. The victorious allies at Waterloo in 1815 awarded campaign medals irrespective of rank and these, together with the East India Company's initiatives in the 1840s, paved the way for a huge surge in the growth of campaign medals during the 19th century, one which was paralleled in other nations equally engaged in wars of conquest, expansion, or imperial ambition. In the 20th century, campaign medals have continued to be a growth industry, different nations taking a variety of views on how, or indeed whether, to commemorate service in particular campaigns. Not all campaigns thus commemorated have been essentially aggressive ones, the UN awarding medals to personnel engaged on peacekeeping operations and, by so doing, recognizing the risks thus run.

Medals for long service and good conduct were instituted as the ordinary serviceman's equivalent of the higher award which his officer might receive. Deserving old soldiers and sailors could expect to receive a pension or admission to a veterans' hospital, like those at the Hôtel des Invalides, Royal Hospital Chelsea, Greenwich, and Kilmainham, but the concept of a deserving veterans medal was one introduced in Britain in the 1830s and eventually widely copied. Such medals, accompanied by a token pension, were regarded by the government, the serviceman, and—perhaps most significantly—the latter's potential employer, as a testimonial to his good character—no unimportant factor in societies which tended, almost instinctively, to regard discharged servicemen as dangerous drunken wastrels. Long service medals now exist in many branches of public services but are drawn from the military examples of the early 19th century.

Bibliography

• Abbott, Philip E., and Tamplin, John M. A., British Gallantry Awards (London, 1971).
• Gordon, Lawrence L., British Battles and Medals (London, 1971).
• Mayo, John H., Medals and Decorations of the British Army and Navy, 2 vols. (London, 1897)

— Stephen Wood