General Service Medal 1962-2007

 

General Service 1962 - 2007.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

The General Service Medal (also known as the Campaign Service Medal) was a British Commonwealth campaign medal presented to those who participated in operations for which no other separate medal was intended. The medal was instituted in 1964 to combine the General Service Medal (1918), and awarded to the Army and RAF, and the Naval General Service Medal (1915).

 

The 1962 General Service Medal was awarded until 2007, when it was in turn replaced by the Operational Service Medal.

 

 

The medal is circular, 36mm in diameter and was struck in silver. The obverse of this medal bears the crowned effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, with the inscription; ‘ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA F.D.’ (meaning Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen and Defender of the Faith).

 

The reverse contains the inscription; ‘FOR CAMPAIGN SERVICE' under a crown, all surrounded by a wreath of oak leaves.

 

The ribbon suspender is of the ornate and swiveling style used with the previous (Army and Air Force) General Service Medal and is attached by a floral mount which is riveted to the medal.

 

The recipient's details can be found on the medal's rim impressed in small capital letters.

 

 

 

The ribbon is 32mm wide and is purple in colour with a narrow dark green stripe along either edge. These are the same colours as the General Service Medal 1918-62, but arranged in different proportions.

 

 

This medal was issued with the following clasps:-

 

 

In regards to the award of the clasp, in all cases, should the qualifying period be cut short due to injury or death, then the completed days are counted as sufficient for the award of this clasp.

 

In addition, the award of a British Order or decoration, or being ‘Mentioned in Dispatches’, would also lead to the recipients automatic entitlement to the clasp.

 

The medal was never awarded alone. The maximum number of bars awarded to any one individual is believed to have been six.

 

NB: In all cases a single bronze oak leaf emblem was issued to be worn on the ribbon to signify that the recipient had been ‘Mentioned in Dispatches’.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

 

* It should be noted that the values quoted above reflect the average price that a medal dealer may expect to sell this medal for - please see the ‘things you should know’ web page for more details about valuing medals.

 

** The individual medal value will vary considerably based on the recipient’s details.

 

*** Due to the large number of clasps available for this medal, the value for medals which contains certain clasps will vary considerably.

 

 

This section contains information on:-

 

- The North Borneo Protectorate.

- The Aden Emergency.

- The Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation.

- The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam.

- British Forces In Northern Ireland.

- The Dhofar Rebellion.

- The Multinational Force In Lebanon

- British Forces In The Gulf War.

- British Forces In Northern Iraq.

- The Iraqi No-fly Zones.

 

The North Borneo Protectorate - North Borneo was a British protectorate under the sovereign North Borneo Chartered Company from 1882 to 1941. From 1942 to 1945, North Borneo was occupied by Japanese military forces, before they were driven out by Australian troops. From 1946 to 1963, North Borneo was a Crown Colony of Great Britain, known in this time as British North Borneo.

 

Located in the north-eastern part of Borneo, it is now part of Malaysia as the state of Sabah, apart from the island group of Labuan which was separated from the rest in 1984 to form a Federal Territory, administered directly from the federal government.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Aden Emergency - The Aden Emergency was an insurgency against the British Crown forces in the British controlled territories of South Arabia which now form part of the Yemen.

 

Partly inspired by Nasser's pan Arab nationalism, it began on 10 December 1963 with the throwing of a grenade at a gathering of British officials at Aden Airport. A state of emergency was then declared in the British Crown colony of Aden and its hinterland, the Aden Protectorate.

 

The emergency escalated in 1967 and hastened the end of British rule in the territory which had begun in 1839. On 30 November 1967, British forces withdrew and the independent People's Republic of South Yemen was proclaimed.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation - The Indonesian–Malaysian Confrontation during 1963-1966 was Indonesia's political and armed opposition to the creation of Malaysia. It is also known by its Indonesian/Malay name Konfrontasi. The creation of Malaysia was the amalgamation of the Federation of Malaya (now West Malaysia), Singapore and the crown colony/British protectorates of Sabah and Sarawak (collectively known as British Borneo, now East Malaysia) in September 1963.

 

The confrontation was an undeclared war with most of the action occurring in the border area between Indonesia and East Malaysia on the island of Borneo (known as Kalimantan in Indonesia). The conflict was characterized by restrained and isolated ground combat, set within tactics of low-level brinkmanship. Combat was usually conducted by company or platoon sized operations on either side of the border.

 

The conflict is sometimes informally referred to as the 'Platoon Commander's War', at least before the start of Claret operations. Indonesia's campaign of infiltrations into Borneo sought to exploit the ethnic and religious diversity in Sabah and Sarawak compared to that of Malaya and Singapore, with the intent of unravelling the proposed state of Malaysia.

 

The challenging jungle terrain of Borneo and lack of roads straddling the Malaysia/Indonesia border forced both Indonesian and Commonwealth forces to conduct long foot patrols. Both sides relied on light infantry operations and air transport, although Commonwealth forces enjoyed the advantage of better helicopter deployment and resupply to forward operating bases. Rivers were also used as a method of transport and infiltration. Although combat operations were primarily conducted by ground forces, aerial forces played a vital support role and naval forces ensured the security of the sea flanks.

 

The British provided most of the defensive effort, although Malaysian forces steadily increased their contributions, and there were periodic contributions from Australian and New Zealander forces within the combined Far East Strategic Reserve stationed then in West Malaysia and Singapore.

 

Initial Indonesian attacks into East Malaysia relied heavily on local volunteers trained by the Indonesian Army. With the passage of time infiltration forces became more organised with the inclusion of a larger component of Indonesian forces. To deter and disrupt Indonesia's growing campaign of infiltrations, the British responded in 1964 by launching their own covert operations into Indonesian Kalimantan under the code name Operation Claret. Coinciding with Sukarno announcing a 'year of dangerous living' and 1964 race riots in Singapore, Indonesia launched on 17 August 1964 an expanded campaign of operations into West Malaysia, albeit without military success.

 

A build-up of Indonesian forces on the Kalimantan border in December 1964 saw the UK commit significant forces from the UK based Army Strategic Command and Australia and New Zealand deployed combat forces from West Malaysia to Borneo in 1965-6. The intensity of the conflict began to subside following the events of the 30 September Movement and Suharto's rise to power. A new round of peace negotiations between Indonesia and Malaysia began in May 1966 and a final peace agreement was signed on 11 August 1966 with Indonesia formally recognising Malaysia.

 

Important precursors to the conflict included Indonesia's campaign of infiltrations into Netherlands New Guinea from March–August 1962 and the Brunei Revolt in December 1962.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam - While assisting the British during the Malayan Emergency, Australian and New Zealand military forces had gained valuable experience in jungle warfare and counter-insurgency. According to historian Paul Ham, the US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, ‘freely admitted to the ANZUS meeting in Canberra in May 1962, that the US armed forces knew little about jungle warfare’.

 

Given the experience that Australian forces had gained in Malaya it was felt that initially Australia could contribute to the situation by providing advisors who were experts in the tactics of jungle warfare. In this regard the Australian government's initial response was to send 30 military advisers, dispatched as the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), also known as ‘the Team’.

 

The Australian military assistance was to be in jungle warfare training, and the Team comprised highly qualified and experienced officers and NCOs, led by Colonel Ted Serong, many with previous experience from the Malayan Emergency. Their arrival in South Vietnam during July and August 1962 was the beginning of Australia's involvement in the war in Vietnam.

 

Relationships between the AATTV and US advisors were generally very cordial. However, there were sometimes significant differences of opinion on the training and tactics that should be employed. For example, when Serong expressed doubt about the value of the Strategic Hamlet Program at a US counter Insurgency Group meeting in Washington on 23 May 1963, he drew a ‘violent challenge’ from US Marine General Victor ‘Brute’ Krulak.

 

Captain Barry Petersen's work with raising an anti-communist Montagnard force in the central highlands between 1963 and 1965 highlighted another problem-South Vietnamese officials sometimes found sustained success by a foreigner difficult to accept. Warrant Officer Class Two Kevin Conway of the AATTV, was killed on 6 July 1964, side by side with Master Sergeant Gabriel Alamo of the USSF, during a sustained Viet Cong attack on Nam Dong Special Forces Camp, becoming Australia's first battle casualty.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

British Forces In Northern Ireland - ‘Operation Banner’ was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from August 1969 to July 2007. It was initially deployed at the request of the unionist government of Northern Ireland to support the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). After the 1998 Belfast Agreement, the operation was gradually scaled down. Its role was to assert the authority of the Government of the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland.

 

The main opposition to the British military's deployment came from the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). It waged a guerrilla campaign against the British military from 1970 to 1997. An internal British Army document released in 2007 stated that, whilst the Army had failed to defeat the IRA, it had made it impossible for the IRA to win through violence, and had also reduced substantially the death toll in the last years of conflict.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Dhofar Rebellion - The Dhofar Rebellion was launched in the province of Dhofar against the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, which had British support, from 1962 to 1976.

 

It ended with the defeat of the rebels, but the state of Oman had to be radically reformed and modernized to cope with the campaign.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Multinational Force In Lebanon - The Multinational Force in Lebanon (also MNF) was an international peacekeeping force created in 1982, after the demand was made by Lebanon to the UN's secretary general, and initially to oversee the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

 

The participants included contingents of United States Marines and Navy SEALs, units of the French 11th Parachute Brigade, the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment, the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment, other units of the French Foreign Legion, Italian, and British soldiers. The force was dissolved in March 1984, soon after the October 1983 Beirut barracks bombing.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

British Forces In The Gulf War - 'Operation Granby' was the name given to the British military operations during the 1991 Gulf War. 53,462 troops were deployed during the conflict.

 

The total cost of operations was £2.434 billion (1992) of which at least £2.049 billion was paid for by other nations such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia; £200 million of equipment was lost or written off.

 

'Operation Granby' took its name from John Manners, Marquis of Granby a British commander in the Seven Years' War.

 

The Joint Commander Gulf Forces (based in the United Kingdom at RAF High Wycombe) was Air Chief Marshal Sir Patrick Hine 1 October 1990-31 March 1991, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Grayson from 31 March 1991.

 

His political adviser was Andrew Palmer. The Commander British Forces Middle East, the in-theatre commander (based in Riyadh), was initially Air Vice Marshal Andrew Wilson (September-October 1990), then Lieutenant-General Sir Peter de la Billière 6 October 1990-March 1991, and Air Commodore Ian Macfadyen from March 1991.

 

The Air Commander British Forces Middle East (initially Arabian Peninsula) was Air Vice Marshal Andrew Wilson from August to 17 November 1990 then Air Vice Marshal William (Bill) Wratten from 17 November 1990.

 

The Senior British Naval Officer Middle East was Captain Anthony McEwen, Royal Navy until September 1990 (on HMS York), then Commodore Paul Haddocks September to December 1990. Finally Commodore Christopher Craig, on HMS Brave and HMS London, was in command from 3 December 1990 to March 1991.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

The Iraqi No-fly Zones - The Iraqi no-fly zones were a set of two separate no-fly zones (NFZs), and were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom, and France after the Gulf War of 1991 to protect the Kurds in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones.

 

The policy was enforced by U.S., UK, and French aircraft patrols until France withdrew in 1998. While the enforcing powers had cited United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 as authorizing the operations, the resolution actually contains no explicit authorization.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.

 

British Forces In Northern Iraq - ‘Operation Haven’ also known as Operation Provide Comfort and Provide Comfort II were military operations by the United States, initiated by the United Kingdom and included some of her other Gulf War allies, starting in April 1991, to defend Kurds fleeing their homes in northern Iraq in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War and deliver humanitarian aid to them.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.