Awarded for distinguished service, or for gallantry, by non-commissioned officers, extended in WW1 for gallantry in the field (Army and Marines); meritorious service by ground crew (RAF); and gallantry not in the face of the enemy and meritorious service by petty officers and senior naval ratings (Navy).

First established

By Queen Victoria, 19 December 1845 (Army); 1849 (Marines); 1918 (Air Force); 1919 (Navy).

WW1 recipients

Pte B Levesseur, CEF, 1 April 1920

‘Pte. Levesseur, B., 7th Can. Inf Bn; (France) (To be dated 3rd June, 1919.)’ (Gazette supplement 31846)

Levesseur was of the Royal Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Prime Minister of Canada (1911-20), Sir Robert Borden, committed Canada to provide half a million soldiers for the war effort (as a British dominion) and passed a Military Service Act in 1917 to help facilitate this.

Coolie Chao Wen Te, CLC, 17 June 1918 (for gallantry, France and Flanders) (Gazette supplement 31846)

The Chinese Labour Corps was a force of workers recruited by the British government in WWI to free troops for front-line duty by performing support work and manual labour. Each volunteer received an embarkment fee of 20 yuan, followed by 10 yuan a month, which would be paid to family in China. Some call them the ‘forgotten of the forgotten’.