George Medal

The George Medal
File:George Medal Obv.jpg Obverse (top left) and reverse (top right) of the medal. Ribbon: 32mm, crimson with five narrow blue stripes.
Type	Civil decoration.
Description	Silver disc, 36mm diameter.
Eligibility	Those performing acts of bravery in, or meriting recognition by, the United Kingdom.
Post-nominals	GM
Status	Currently awarded.
Established	24 September 1940
Precedence
Next (higher)	George Cross
Next (lower)	Queen's Gallantry Medal, Sea Gallantry Medal

The George Medal (GM) is the second level civil decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.

The GM was instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI. At this time, during the height of The Blitz, there was a strong desire to reward the many acts of civilian courage. The existing awards open to civilians were not judged suitable to meet the new situation, therefore it was decided that the George Cross and the GM would be instituted to recognise both civilian gallantry in the face of enemy action and brave deeds more generally.

Announcing the new award, the King said: "In order that they should be worthily and promptly recognised, I have decided to create, at once, a new mark of honour for men and women in all walks of civilian life. I propose to give my name to this new distinction, which will consist of the George Cross, which will rank next to the Victoria Cross, and the George Medal for wider distribution."

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.

The medal is granted in recognition of "acts of great bravery." The GM was originally not issued posthumously, but the warrant was amended in 1977 to allow posthumous awards, several of which have been subsequently 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:

The Medal is intended primarily for civilians and award in Our military services is to be confined to actions for which purely military Honours are not normally granted.

Bars are awarded to the GM in recognition of the performance 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. Recipients are entitled to the postnominal letters GM.

The details of all awards to British and Commonwealth recipients are published in the London Gazette.

Description

• The GM is a circular silver medal. The obverse depicts the crowned effigy of the reigning monarch and a legend.
• The reverse shows St. 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 ribbon is red with five equally spaced thin blue stripes. The blue colour is taken from the George Cross ribbon.

Ribbon bars of the George Medal
GM	GM and Bar

Recipients

• The first award of the GM was to Patrick King of Shiremoor, Northumberland. King was an air-raid warden and on 26 August 1940 he rescued a blind woman from a house during an air-raid.
• Captain R.T.Payne - Kept crew alive for eight days on three biscuits and a dipper of water a day in a lifeboat, and "sailed" 650 miles to the west coast of Ireland when the SS Marina was torpedoed on 17th Sept. 1940.
• Geoffrey Hodges, RNVR. Bomb disposal.
• Sybil Kathigasu - Malayan nurse who supported the resistance during the Japanese occupation of Malaya. She is the only Malayan woman to be ever awarded with the George Medal for bravery. (World War II)
• George Roberts - Railwayman, in recognition of the leading part that he played in the Liverpool May Blitz
• John A. Sinclair - Royal Air Force Gunner who twice re-entered a fully fuelled Wellington bomber that crashed and burst into flames on take off to rescue two Polish airmen trapped inside (World War II)
• Hilton Alomes - Tasmanian police inspector who rescued two people from a flood (1960)
• Porter C Jarrell-Private Royal Army Medical Corps who was awarded the medal in 1944 "in recognition for carrying out hazardous work in a very brave manner in the field"
• John Bridge - Bomb disposal expert in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (World War II)
• George Graham Layton - rescued an airman from a fiercely burning aircraft with bombs still on board, stripped him of his burning clothes wrapped his own shirt around the airman and assisted him to the fire tender just before the aircraft exploded (World War II)
• Arthur Cobby - Royal Australian Air Force pilot (World War II)
• Lionel "Buster" Crabb - Royal Navy frogman (World War II)
• John Edward Dillon - Able Seaman on HMS Ardent who during the Falklands War rescued another sailor before the ship sank (1982)
• Helen Dickson - Aramoana, New Zealand, elderly woman had recently had hip replacement shot at during Aramoana massacre, crawled on hands and knees inside to phone for help, then back out to assist shot neighbour, then crawled inside to phone emergency services again.
• Marie Dissard - French Resistance member (World War II)
• Michou Dumont - Basque teenager who rescued downed airmen (World War II)
• Edward Nurse - RUC officer, saved two children from a bomb in an RUC police station.
• Florentino Goicoechea - Basque who smuggled allied airmen out of France (World War II)
• Leon Goldsworthy - Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve bomb and mine specialist (World War II)
• Elvire de Greef (also known as 'Tante Go') - Smuggled downed airmen out of France (World War II)
• Maurice Griffiths - Royal Navy officer and yachtsman, defused floating German magnetic mines (World War II)
• Krystyna Skarbek (also known as 'Christine Granville') - Special Operations Executive agent (World War II)
• Mike Hailwood - Racing driver, pulled fellow driver Clay Regazzoni from his burning racing car, setting fire to his own race suit in the process (1973)
• Countess Andrée de Jongh - Belgian Resistance member (World War II)
• Stanley McArdle - Royal Navy officer, rescued survivors from the ferry MV Princess Victoria (1953)
• John James Baillie - World War II
• Bernard Peter de Neumann - Merchant Navy officer, removed a 250 kg bomb from the engine room of SS Tewkesbury (World War II)
• Louis Nouveau - French Resistance member who rescued downed allied airmen (World War II)
• Andrew Clifford Parker - acted as a human bridge on the Herald of Free Enterprise
• Ernest Lewis Playford - Civil Defence leader. Following a bombing raid on the London Docks at the height of the Blitz, he led a rescue party into badly damaged and unsafe building. He acted as human bridge as building collapsed saving other rescuers. He refused to leave a trapped warden and protected him as the building collapsed. The warden was dug out alive, however, Playford was severely injured. He was one of the first recipients of the medal (World War II)
• Lisa Potts - Nursery teacher, protected children in her care from a knife attack (1996)
• David Purley - Racing driver, attempted to save the life of his fellow driver Roger Williamson from a burning racing car (1973)
• Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild - MI5 officer (World War II)
• Hugh Randall Syme - Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve bomb and mine specialist (World War II)
• Tenzing Norgay - Mountaineer, climbed to the summit of Mount Everest (1953)
• Nancy Wake - Special Operations Executive agent (World War II)
• Captain John Penfield Epps - London dock master who saved ships and lives during the Blitz (1940)
• Major A. H. G. Gibbon - Korean War veteran, in recognition of his long-sustained courage as a prisoner of war. In May 1951, Gibbon helped three officers to escape, resulting in his “vigorous interrogation” in the camp reserved for this treatment near Pyongyang, known as Pak’s Palace after its commandant, Major Pak.
• William Arthur Waterton - RAF Squadron Leader and test pilot, who landed the prototype Gloster Javelin aircraft after flutter had destroyed the elevators, thereby saving important information (1952)
• Gary O'Donnell - British Army bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan in 2008
• Tony Rivers - Nertherton, Dudley, Worcestershire, saved a woman who was trapped on the line at Cradley Heath railway station
• Robert Campbell - Police officer Dumfries, Scotland, disarmed and arrested Robert Dobie Smith after Smith shot dead fellow police officer William Gibson while the officers were on duty. In 1951 Smith was hanged in Edinburgh.
• Andrew Pennington - died saving the life of Cheltenham MP Nigel Jones when they were attacked with a samurai sword (2000)
• Emlyn A G Watkins - Police Inspector - Emlyn Watkins, who lived in Worsley, was shot in the stomach when he tackled three men who had pulled a gun in an Indian restaurant in Rusholme in 1975. When the men were arrested it emerged they were part of an IRA unit sent to assassinate North West VIPs. Watkins was seriously injured but survived. Five men, part of a Manchester-based IRA terrorist cell, were arrested in the aftermath of the shooting and were jailed in 1976 for a total of 627 years.
• John Inglis - of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland, was a 2nd Officer in the Royal Merchant Navy and received the award for saving the lives of his staff and his ship when attacked in Singapore Harbour by Japanese bombers during WWII. He was severely injured during the attack.
• Gordon Meredith - Police Sergeant, West Midlands Police who, whilst attending a break-in, was shot in the leg and severely injured yet disarmed an intruder who had just shot and fatally wounded a fellow police officer.
• Warrant Officer Karl Ley - made safe 139 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), more than anyone else in history, planted by the Taliban during a tour of Helmand Province in Afghanistan.
• Flight Sergeant John Rodney Lees Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service - rescued an injured British Army officer, Major Hugh Robertson, from the Welsh mountain Craig yr Ysfa in winter by carrying him down the rock face on his back while being lowered, and while the major was struggling in delirium, in the dark.
• Michael Tolkien - son of author J. R. R. Tolkien, anti-aircraft gunner during the Battle of Britain
• Constable John Campbell and Inspector Andrew Hyslop - foiled the Linwood bank robbery
• John Purnell Balcombe Street Siege (1975)

Jim Howell G.M , Crew member of the HMS Pintail Corvette(K 21) [+1941] , He Received the George Medal for his bravery, he disabled a mine from the side of a ship. 2 weeks after receiving the medal from the King, he and Two thirds of the crew were KIA when they went to help the steamship "Royal Scot" it detonated an acoustic mine, blew up and sank. Pintail immediately dashed to the scene to help in the rescue, but she was also caught out by an acoustic mine. He was pictured in the Daily Herald on Wednesday September the 17th 1941 proudly with his Medal :). HMS Pintail (K 21) [+1941] Wreck Site

See also

• British and Commonwealth orders and decorations
• Recipients of the George Medal

Bibliography

• Abbott, P. E. and Tamplin, JMA - British Gallantry Awards, (1981), Nimrod Dix and Co.
• Duckers, P. - British Gallantry Awards 1855-2000, (2001), Shire Publications
• Mackay, J. and Mussell, J. (eds) - Medal Yearbook - 2005, (2004), Token Publishing.

External links

• George Keen GM - 1st Railway George Medal 1940
• New Zealand Defence Force - Medal information page
• Stephen Stratford medal page
• Search recommendations for the George Medal on The UK National Archives' website.