FOR OFFICERS AND MEN, THE SAME MEDALS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 40, 29 March 1940, Page 4

FOR OFFICERS AND MEN, THE SAME MEDALS

Sir Arnold Wilson suggests that as in the case of the Victoria Cross all rewards for gallantry should be available for all ranks.

Sir Arnold Wilson, M.P., writing in the " Quarterly Review" on the subject of "Awards for Military Gallantry," after dealing with their bestowal from the Elizabethan period to the present day, referring to Queen Victoria’s adoption of the Victoria Cross, states: e EROISM should be recognised : H at all times, and there is no good reason to. distinguish between acts of heroism in the field, such as earned Lord Gort his V.C., and equally heroic acts behind the lines which in 1915 earned Captain (now Air Marshal Sir Cyril) Newall the Albert Medal in Gold. From 1856 to 1914 there were 522 V.C. awards; during the last war 579, and five since, of which last all but one were posthumous." Dealing with other awards, Sir Arnold Wilson writes: "The Distinguished Service Order €D.S.0.) is for commissioned officers of the three arms of the service only. Alone among British Orders it has no motto. It dates from 1886; the bar dated from 1916. The V.C. is not an order; holders are entitled to no precedence but that of public respect. The D.S.O. and the Military Cross "The D.S.O. is an order, and ranks after the Order of the British Empire. It was originally awarded for meritorious or distinguished service, but the Royal Warrant of 1931 now requires that no one shall be eligible save for distinguished service under fire, or under conditions equivalent to service in actual combat with the enemy. "We are alone among the nations of the world in having such an order of gallantry ‘for officers only.’ Awards during the last war totalled 9,002; 709 first, 71 second, and seven third bars were awarded. "The Military Cross (M.C.) is for officers and warrant officers of the Army and Air Force only (the Navy not being eligible), not above the substantive rank of Major, ‘for gallant and distinguished Service in action,’ whether in the air or on the ground. This definition in the amending warrant of 1931 replaces that of December, 1914, which provided for awards ‘in recognition of distinguished and meritorious services in time of war.’ Future awards will, therefore, be for gallantry only. "No annuity or extra pay is provided for officers and the receipt of the decoration confers no precedence, but warrant officers who hold it are entitled to receive a gratuity of £20 on discharge or promotion, and, if pensioned, an extra 6d a day (3d for non-European or Maltese holders). Awards during the last war were 38,004; 2,984 first, 169 second, and four third bars were awarded.

"In no other country does there exist a gallantry medal for army and air force, but not for the navy; for officers and warrant officers, but not for men. The equivalent in the Royal Navy is the Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.). "Officers and warrant officers below the rank of Lieut.~Commander are eligible, provided that their services have been marked by special mention of their mame in despatches for meritorious or distinguished services before the enemy. It replaces the Conspicuous Service Cross (C.S.C.), instituted by Royal Warrant in June, 1901. The equivalent in the Royal Air Force is the Distinguished Flying Cross. "There seem to be good grounds for amalgamating the M.C., D.F.C., and the D.S.C. under the last title, and for making members of all three Services eligible upon identical conditions. It is to the advantage of the Services that, when possible, equivalent distinctions should be awarded for like services and that the decorations should be readily recognisable. Acts of Exceptional Valour "The Distinguished Flying Cross (D.F.C.) is peculiar to the Royal Air Force and is awarded to officers and warrant officers only in recognition of acts of exceptional valour, courage, and devotion to duty whilst flying against the enemy. "Up to January Ist, 1920, 1,080 Distinguished Flying. Crosses had been awarded. The number awardéd since is about 1,190. The Air Force Cross (A.F.C.) is also limited to the Royal Air Force and is likewise awarded to officers and warrant officers only, for exceptional valour, courage, or devotion to duty whilst flying though not in active operation against the enemy. Up to January Ist, 1920, 655 Air Force Crosses had been awarded. Number awarded since is about 800." After writing about the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal (C.G.M.) the Distinguished Service Medal (D.S.M.), the Distinguished Conduct Medal (D.C.M.), the Military Medal (M.M.), the Distinguished Flying Medal (D.F.M.), and the Air Force Medal (A.F.M.), as medals for which the rank and file alone are eligible, Sir Arnold concludes: An Inescapable Conclusion "The inescapable conclusion which most readers will have reached for themselves is that the whole system of awards for gallantry requires overhauling. There should be no awards peculiar to one service, and pecuniary rewards, when they exist, should be the same for all services, There should, as in France, be no awards of gallantry which can be given only to officers, as the D.S.O. and

M.C., D.F.C. and A.F.C, or only to men, as the C.G.M., D.C.M., D.S.M., and M.M., D.F.M. and A.F.M. "A possible solution would be to replace the M.C., the D,F.C. and the D.S.C. by a new decoration, a Cross for Conspicuous Gallantry for which officers and men of all the fighting services would be eligible. The C.G.M., D.S.M., D.C.M. and the M.M., D.F.M. and A.F.M. might be replaced by two medals, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Meritorious Service Medal. This would promote a feeling of solidarity among all ranks of all the services. "Gallantry Medals should be easily distinguished from others, and, other considerations apart, there is much to be said for restricting the use of the cross in any form to awards for gallantry, so as to make them more easily recognisable. ". . . Few would deny that honourable recognition of noble deeds accorded to those who survive and their dependants should they perish helps to create an attitude of mind which is ultimately the deciding factor. That, indeed, is the very basis of every system of honour and awards. Men who receive them, as Plutarch says in his Life of Coriolanus, "do not think so much that they have received a reward as that they have given a pledge ’-which they are determined to honour."