Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal


The Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, initially designated the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service Medal, was instituted in 1908. It could be awarded to part-time ratings in the United Kingdom's Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve after twelve years of service and good conduct. The medal was a Naval version of the Volunteer Long Service Medal and its successor, the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal.
The medal could also be awarded to part-time ratings in the Naval Volunteer Reserves of Dominion and Colonial Auxiliary Forces throughout the British Empire.
The award of the medal was discontinued in the United Kingdom in 1966, when the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, composed of civilian volunteers, was merged with the Royal Naval Reserve, composed of Merchant Navy seamen. It was superseded by its identical sister medal, the Royal Naval Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
The New Zealand version, the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, is still being awarded.

Origins

The Volunteer Long Service Medal was instituted in 1894 as an award for long service by other ranks of the United Kingdom's Volunteer Force. In 1896, the grant of the medal was extended by Royal Warrant to other ranks of the Volunteer Forces throughout the British Empire and a separate new medal was instituted, the Volunteer Long Service Medal for India and the Colonies.
In 1899, the Volunteer Long Service Medal for India and the Colonies was superseded by the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Long Service Medal, for award to part-time members of all ranks in recognition of long service in any of the organized military forces of the Dominion of Canada and the British Colonies, Dependencies and Protectorates.
In 1908, the Volunteer Long Service Medal was superseded in the United Kingdom by the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal. In the same year, a pair of distinctive Naval medals were instituted, specifically to reward long and meritorious service by part-time ratings of the Royal Naval Reserve, composed of Merchant Navy seamen, and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, composed of civilian volunteers.

Institution

The Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service Medal was instituted in 1908 as a long service award for part-time ratings of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Colonies and India. At some point between 1936 and 1941, the title of the medal was changed to Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. It was one of a pair of Naval long service medals which were instituted simultaneously, the other being the Royal Naval Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, which had different time-served requirements.
The two medals are identical and can only be identified by the reserve branch abbreviation impressed on the rim after the recipient's details, "R.N.R." on the Royal Naval Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal and "R.N.V.R." on the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Both were initially hung from the same all-green ribbon inherited from the Volunteer Long Service Medal, until a new ribbon was introduced for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in 1919.
When a third identical medal, the Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, impressed "R.N.A.S.B.R.", was added to the group in 1919, a clasp to recognise further periods of long service in respect of all three medals was authorised in an Admiralty Fleet Order. This was followed in 1942 by the approval of a ribbon bar rosette, to denote the award of a clasp when ribbons alone are worn.
The medal was also awarded by several countries in the British Empire.
The medal could be awarded to part-time Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve ratings after twelve years of efficient service, not necessarily continuous. Wartime service counted as double time for the purpose of reckoning eligibility for the medal. The clasp to the medal could be awarded for a second twelve-year qualifying period of service.

Order of wear

In the order of wear prescribed by the British Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal takes precedence after the Royal Naval Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal and before the Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

South Africa

With effect from 6 April 1952, when a new South African set of decorations and medals was instituted to replace the British awards used to date, the older British decorations and medals which were applicable to South Africa continued to be worn in the same order of precedence but, with the exception of the Victoria Cross, took precedence after all South African decorations and medals awarded to South Africans on or after that date. Of the official British medals which were applicable to South Africans, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal takes precedence as shown.

The medal was struck in silver and is a disk, in diameter, with a raised rim on each side. It is suspended from a straight silver bar, swivelling on some versions and, on all but the second Queen Elizabeth II version, affixed to the medal by means of a single-toe claw and a pin through the upper edge of the medal.
;Obverse
The obverse bears the effigy of the reigning monarch. Seven versions of the medal have been awarded.
;Reverse
The reverse depicts a starboard broadside view of HMS Dreadnought, the Royal Navy battleship which entered service in 1906. It is inscribed "DIUTURNE FIDELIS" underneath. The design was by British sculptor Ernest George Gillick ARA, whose wife designed the obverse of the two Queen Elizabeth II versions of the medal.
;Clasp
The clasp, decorated in a leaf pattern, was struck in silver and designed to be attached to the medal suspension.
;Ribbons
Two ribbons were used with the medal.
In the United Kingdom and some countries of the Commonwealth, the medal was gradually superseded by new medals.
New Zealand continues to award the medal as the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, instituted by Royal Warrant of 6 May 1985, for fifteen years of accumulated service, during which the rating must have been rated as efficient in at least twelve. The clasp can be awarded for each additional ten years of qualifying service.