SERBIAN MEDAL FOR SERVICE TO WOUNDED 376 GERMAN MEDAL FOR SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 380 GREEK MEDAL FOR GRECO-TURKISH WAR 380 SECOND MÉDAILLE MILITAIRE 384 ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE TEXT H.E.I. Co. Honourable East India Company. M.G.S. Military General Service. N.G.S. Naval General Service. I.G.S. India General Service. V.C. Victoria Cross. D.S.O. Distinguished Service Order. D.C.M. Distinguished Conduct Medal. D.S.C. Distinguished Service Cross. D.S.M. Distinguished Service Medal. C.G.M. Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. G.S.M. General Service Medal. [Illustration: MEDALLION OF EARL OF ESSEX.] [Illustration: SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX MILITARY AWARD, 1645.] [Illustration: BADGE OF CHARLES I AND HENRIETTA. ROYALIST BADGES.] WAR MEDALS AND THEIR HISTORY Since the days when woad-clad Britons faced Cæsar's legions we have had a military system, but it was not, so far as we have any substantial evidence, until the days of Elizabeth that personal decorations were awarded for military service, or distinction on the seas or in the field. In the Middle Ages, a warrior, knighted on the field of battle, was permitted to use a square instead of a swallow-tailed pennon, as a knight's banneret, and to use a war cry, from whence we may trace the origin of the mottoes used with Coats of Arms. Later, after Sedgemoor (July 6th, 1685), recognition of the lower ranks is recorded in the bestowal of a gratuity of £40 to Sergeant Weems of the 1st Royals (now the Royal Scots) for serving the great guns in an emergency; but these types of award hardly provided that personal note or record which the war medal, as we know it, gives to the recipient. It is fitting that the Navy, which had existed for centuries prior to the establishment of a standing Army, should take precedence in the bestowal of awards for active service; the rout of the Spanish Armada--in 1588--probably gave the incentive to Good Queen Bess to commemorate the auspicious occasion by the issue of medals in gold and silver, and we may reasonably assume that they were given for personal decoration to the leading officers engaged in the defeat of the Armada, or that the recipients thought that by wearing them they would show respect to the Queen, and thus established the custom of wearing medals, presented by the Sovereign for War Service. A specimen of these medals, with rings and chain for suspension, probably from the neck, is to be seen in the British Museum.