Polar Medal
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The Polar Medal is a medal awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, which was originally instituted in 1857 as the Arctic Medal to reward earlier explorers attempting to discover the Northwest Passage.
The first awards were made to the men engaged in a search expedition to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin and his crew who were lost in 1847 while looking for the Northwest Passage. A second Arctic Medal was sanctioned for the crews of three ships exploring in the Arctic in 1875–76. In 1904 a third and current series, the Polar Medal, was instituted for members of Captain Scott's first expedition to Antarctica. Medals were also awarded to members of Ernest Shackleton's expedition.
Originally the medal came in both silver and bronze; the bronze medals were awarded to personnel of relief ships for Antarctic expeditions. No bronze medals were awarded for Arctic expeditions. Today the medal comes in silver only.
Before 1968 the Polar Medal was awarded to all who participated in any Polar expedition endorsed by the government of any of the Commonwealth Realms. Today however the Polar Medal is only awarded to selected British individuals for extreme human endeavour against the appalling weather and conditions that exist in the Arctic and Antarctic. An increasing number are awarded to members of expeditions and scientific bases that are kept constantly manned in the Antarctic. The Regulations governing the award have been revised and now "acquisition of knowledge of Polar regions shall normally be ten years such service to be considered a medal". However, greater emphasis is now placed on individual service.
The medal is octagonal and the obverse bears the head of the reigning monarch (Edward VII, George V, George VI or Elizabeth II) while the reverse depicts the RRS Discovery with a sledge party in the foreground. The medal is suspended on a white ribbon.
A total of 880 silver and 245 bronze medals have been issued for Antarctic expeditions and a further 73 silver medals for Arctic expeditions.
The Government of Australia has since replaced the Polar Medal with its own Australian Antarctic Medal.
In 1996 when New Zealand revised its royal honours system, New Zealanders ceased to receive the Polar Medal, although it was proposed that the medal would be preserved, with a new name, under New Zealand regulations. The rationale for the renaming was the surprising belief that "Polar" meant the north pole, and indicated that the advisory committee were apparently ignorant both of the history of the Polar Medal as well as of geography.
On September 1, 2006 the New Zealand Antarctic Medal was instituted by the Queen of New Zealand.
