Efficiency Medal

This article is about the British award for long service in the Territorial Army. For other awards named "Efficiency Medal", see Efficiency Medal (disambiguation).
Efficiency Medal
Awarded by The United Kingdom
Type Medal
Eligibility Territorial Army (UK) - Ranks; Indian Volunteer Forces; Colonial Auxiliary Forces
Awarded for Granted for a minimum of 12 years service with war service and West African peacetime service counting double.
Status

This award:

Description

as follows:

  • Ribbon = 32mm plain dark green with yellow edges.
    • In 1969 this was altered to half blue, half green, with yellow edges following the formation of the T&AVR.
    • Members of the Honourable Artillery Company wore a half blue, half scarlet ribbon, with yellow edges.
  • Metal = Silver
  • Size = Height 39mm; max.width 32mm
  • Shape = Oval, with fixed suspender bar decorated with two palm leaves and an inscribed scroll. See sub-heading 'Scroll Inscriptions' for details of variations in inscription.
  • Obverse = Sovereign's effigy (George V; George VI; Elizabeth II)
  • Reverse = Inscription: FOR EFFICIENT SERVICE on three lines.
  • Naming = Name of recipient inscribed on the rim of the medal (Service Number, Rank, Name, Initials of Regiment)
Clasps Additional Bars were granted for further periods of 6 years service. These were decorated with an embossed King's crown or Queen's crown dependent upon the time of issue.
Statistics
Established 17 October 1930

The Efficiency Medal was a medal of Britain and the Commonwealth awarded for long service in the Territorial Army of the UK, the Indian Volunteer Forces and Colonial Auxiliary Forces. This award superseded the awards to ranks throughout the volunteer forces of Britain and the Commonwealth. The criteria were for a minimum of 12 years service in the Territorial Army with war service and West African peacetime service counting double. Bars for further periods of 12 years were also awarded. The medal was superseded in 1999 by the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal.[1]

The equivalent award for commissioned officers was the Efficiency Decoration.

Medals Superseded by the Efficiency Medal

This lasted until the formation of the Army Emergency Reserve in 1951 which had their own medal instituted (the Army Emergency Reserve Efficiency Medal.

Obverse Types used

Five different obverse types were used during the life of the medal with the following effigies:[6]

An exception exists for Canada where the second obverse type for Elizabeth II was substituted for a type showing her wearing the Imperial Crown.[7]

Scroll Inscriptions

The fixed suspender bar was decorated with an inscribed scroll the inscription of which had a number of variations.

*T&AVR: This was introduced when the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve was created and lasted from 1969 to 1982 after which the TERRITORIAL inscription was resumed. During this period there was one Obverse type for the main body of the medal being the second effigy type of Elizabeth II.

*(NAME OF COMMONWEALTH COUNTRY): For medals awarded to a member of a force outside of the United Kingdom the scroll had the name of the country of that force inscribed upon it. During this period all 5 Obverse types were used across the various medals for the main body of the medal, although not all countries had all five types.

The countries were:

Ribbon Variations

Original Ribbon
T&AVR Ribbon

Note regarding South Africa

The Efficiency Medal (South Africa) is a very similar medal but is not included in the above Commonwealth Country types because it is a separate medal. The scroll inscription read UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA, but the inscription also had the Afrikaans equivalent below as well as the reverse of the medal bearing a bilingual inscription.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ministry of Defence website
  2. ↑ Mackay, J., Mussell, J.W., Editorial Team of Medal News, (2005), The Medal Yearbook, page 225, (Token Publishing Limited)
  3. ↑ Mackay, J., Mussell, J.W., Editorial Team of Medal News, (2005), The Medal Yearbook, page 234, (Token Publishing Limited)
  4. ↑ Mackay, J., Mussell, J.W., Editorial Team of Medal News, (2005), The Medal Yearbook, page 238, (Token Publishing Limited)
  5. ↑ Mackay, J., Mussell, J.W., Editorial Team of Medal News, (2005), The Medal Yearbook, page 229, (Token Publishing Limited)
  6. ↑ Mackay, J., Mussell, J.W., Editorial Team of Medal News, (2005), The Medal Yearbook, page 209, (Token Publishing Limited)
  7. ↑ Mackay, J., Mussell, J.W., Editorial Team of Medal News, (2005), The Medal Yearbook, page 228, (Token Publishing Limited)
  8. ↑ www.hac.org.uk
  9. ↑ Mackay, J., Mussell, J.W., Editorial Team of Medal News, (2005), The Medal Yearbook, page 236, (Token Publishing Limited)