British War Medal

Infobox Military Award
name= British War Medal


caption= Obverse (top left) and reverse (top right) of the medal. Ribbon: 32mm, orange watered centre with stripes of white and black on each side and borders of royal blue.
awarded_by= United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
type= Campaign medal
eligibility= British and Imperial forces.
for= Campaign service.
campaign= First World War 1914-20.
status=
description= Silver or bronze disk, 36mm diameter.
clasps= None
established= 26 July 1919
first_award=
last_award=
total= 6,390,000 silver,
110,000 bronze.
posthumous=
recipients=
individual=
higher=
same=
lower=
related=1914 Star
1914-15 Star
Victory Medal


caption2=__NOTOC__The British War Medal was a campaign medal of the British Empire, for service in World War I.

The medal was approved in 1919, for issue to officers and men of British and Imperial forces who had rendered service between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. Officers and men of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and Dominion and Colonial naval forces (including reserves) were required to have completed 28 days mobilised service - the medal was automatically awarded in the event of death on active service before the completion of this period.

The medal was later extended to cover the period 1919-20 and service in mine-clearing at sea as well as participation in operations in North and South Russia, the eastern Baltic, Siberia, the Black Sea, and the Caspian. [Medals Yearbook 2004, p169]

Some 6,500,000 medals were awarded in total, of which 110,000 were bronze. These bronze medals were mostly issued to Chinese, Maltese, and Indians who served in labour battalions.

Description

* The medal is a circular silver (or, in rare cases, bronze) design. The obverse shows a King George V bareheaded effigy, facing left, with the

* The reverse shows St. George, naked, on horseback armed with a short sword (an allegory of the physical and mental strength which achieves victory over Prussianism). The horse tramples on the Prussian shield and the skull and cross-bones. Just off-centre, near the right upper rim, is the sun of Victory. The dates 1914 and 1918 appear in the left and right fields respectively.
* The ribbon has a wide central watered stripe of orange, flanked by two narrow white stripes, which are in turn flanked by two black pin-stripes, further flanked by two outer stripes of blue. The colours are not believed to have any particular significance.

Notes

ee also

*World War One - Medal Abbreviations
*British campaign medals
*Australian campaign medals

Bibliography

* Mackay, J and Mussel, J (eds) - "Medals Yearbook - 2006", (2005), Token Publishing.
* Joslin, Litherland, and Simpkin (eds), "British Battles and Medals", (1988), Spink

External links

* [http://www.royaldublinfusiliers.com/medals/BWM.html Royal Dublin Fusiliers BWM page]
* [http://medals.nzdf.mil.nz/category/h/h6.html NZDF BWM page]
* [http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/cmdp/mainmenu/group03/bwm Veterans Affairs Canada BWM page]
* [http://www.defence.gov.au/medals/Content/+040%20Campaign%20Medals/+150%20world%20war%20i/+030%20British%20War%20Medal%201914-20/default.htm ADF BWM page]
* [http://www.military-medal.co.uk Online tool to identify British military medals]
*cite web
url=http://www.kingsownmuseum.plus.com/medalsj.htm
title=The King's Own Royal Regiment Museum, (Lancaster), British War Medal
work=www.kingsownmuseum.plus.com