George Medal

History

In 1940, at the height of the Blitz, there was a strong desire to reward many acts of civilian courage. Existing awards open to civilians were not considered suitable to meet the new situation, so the George Cross and the George Medal were instituted to recognise civilian gallantry in the face of enemy bombing, and brave deeds more generally.

Announcing the new awards, the King said

The warrant for the GM (along with that of the GC), dated 24 January 1941, was published in The London Gazette on 31 January 1941.

Criteria

The medal is granted in recognition of "acts of great bravery". The original warrant for the George Medal did not explicitly permit it to be awarded posthumously. The position was clarified in December 1977 expressly to allow posthumous awards, several of which have subsequently been made.

The medal is primarily a civilian award, but it may be awarded to military personnel for gallant conduct that is not in the face of the enemy. As the warrant states:

Recipients are entitled to the post-nominal letters GM.

Bars to the GM may be awarded in recognition of further acts of bravery meriting the award. In undress uniform or on occasions when the medal ribbon alone is worn, a silver rosette is worn on the ribbon to indicate each bar.

Details of all awards to British and Commonwealth recipients are published in The London Gazette. Approximately 2,124 medals have been awarded since inception in 1940, with 27 second-award bars, the most recent being two announced in 2025.

Description

The GM is a circular silver medal 36 mm in diameter, with the ribbon suspended from a ring. It has the following design.

The obverse depicts the crowned effigy of the reigning monarch, using the designs of Percy Metcalfe (George VI) and Cecil Thomas (Elizabeth II) To date, there have been four types: File:George Medal, King George VI, first obverse.png|George VI, 1940 to 1948. Inscribed GEORGIVS VI D: G: BR: OMN: REX ET INDIAE IMP: File:George Medal, King George VI, second obverse.jpg|George VI, 1948 to 1952. Inscribed GEORGIVS VI DEI: GRA: BRITT: OMN: REX FID: DEF: File:George Medal, Queen Elizabeth, first obverse.png|Elizabeth II, 1952 to late 1950s. Inscribed ELIZABETH II D: G: BR: OMN: REGINA F.D. File:George Medal, Queen Elizabeth, second obverse.png|Elizabeth II, late 1950s to date. Inscribed ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA F.D.

The reverse shows Saint George on horseback slaying the dragon on the coast of England, with the legend THE GEORGE MEDAL around the top edge of the medal.

The medal was designed by George Kruger Gray based on a bookplate designed by Stephen Gooden for the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.

The ribbon is 31.7 mm wide, crimson with five narrow blue stripes. The blue colour is taken from the George Cross ribbon. The medal is worn on the left chest by men; women not in uniform wear the medal on the left shoulder, with the ribbon fashioned into a bow.

The name of the recipient is engraved on the rim of the medal, although some Army awards have impressed naming.

Recipients

The first recipients, listed in The London Gazette of 30 September 1940, were Chief Officer Ernest Herbert Harmer and Second Officer Cyril William Arthur Brown of the Dover Fire Brigade, and Section Officer Alexander Edmund Campbell of the Dover Auxiliary Fire Service, who on 29 July had volunteered to return to a ship loaded with explosives in Dover Harbour to fight fires aboard while an air raid was in progress. Seven other people were also awarded the medal, including the first women; Ambulance Driver Dorothy Clarke and Ambulance Attendant Bessie Jane Hepburn of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, for rescuing a man badly injured in an explosion.

The first recipient chronologically was Coxswain Robert Cross, commander of the RNLI lifeboat City of Bradford, based at Spurn Point, whose award was gazetted on 7 February 1941. It was awarded for an incident on 2 February 1940 when Cross took the lifeboat out in gale force winds, snow squalls, and very rough seas to rescue the crew of a steam trawler.

The youngest recipient was Charity Anne Bick, who lied about her age to join the ARP service at 14 years old, and who delivered several messages by bicycle during a heavy air raid in West Bromwich in late 1940. The youngest male was 14-year-old schoolboy Brian Gibbons who saved his infant nephew when his house caught fire following the 1958 Independent Air Travel Vickers Viking crash in Southall in 1959.

The first person to receive a second award was George Samuel Sewell, an engineer working for Shell-Mex and BP Ltd., based at the oil terminal at Salt End, near Hull, for his actions during an air raid. Having been one of the first recipients (in September 1940), his bar to the George Medal was gazetted on 4 July 1941.

The 75th anniversary, in 2015, of the award's creation was marked by a ceremony in London.

Notes

Bibliography

• Dorling, H. Taprell, (1956), Ribbons and Medals, A. H. Baldwin & Son

References

1. {{London Gazette. (17 March 2003)
2. ''British Gallantry Medals'' (Abbott and Tamplin), p. 138
3. "George Cross Database".
4. {{London Gazette. (31 January 1941)
5. ''The London Gazette'', 31 January 1941 – Warrant, Fifth clause
6. {{London Gazette. (5 December 1977)
7. Which could not therefore be recognised by a military decoration; such awards typically require gallantry in the face of the enemy.
8. ''The London Gazette'', 31 January 1941 – Warrant, Second clause
9. ''The London Gazette'', 31 January 1941 – Warrant, Ninth clause
10. ''The London Gazette'', 31 January 1941 – Warrant, Seventh clause
11. ''Medal Yearbook'' 2015, page 93
12. {{London Gazette. (30 September 2011)
13. ''British Gallantry Medals'' (Abbott and Tamplin), p.146
14. Daily Mirror, 22 November 1940, p 12
15. "British Military & Criminal History, 1900–99". Stephen's Study Room.
16. "George Medal awarded to Lance-Corporal Margaret Emma Richards, Auxiliary Territorial Service, 1948".
17. {{London Gazette. (27 September 1940)
18. Sencicle, Lorraine. (27 July 2013). "Dover Fire Service – Part II from 1939". The Dover Historian.
19. {{London Gazette. (4 February 1941)
20. {{London Gazette. (14 February 1941)
21. {{London Gazette. (17 April 1959)
22. {{London Gazette. (4 July 1941)
23. (24 September 2015). "75th anniversary of the George Cross and George Medal". [[BBC News]].