Descriptions

History

The Efficiency Medal was instituted to replace the five Long Service Awards being awarded in the UK and across the Empire prior to 1930, these are:

Colonial Auxiliary Forces Long Service Medal

The Territorial Efficiency Medal

Volunteer Long Service Medal

Special Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal

Militia Long Service Medal

All these medals had various and differing regulations for their award and the desire to standardise an award was a very high driver to issue a single , The Efficiency Medal.

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On the 23rd September 1930 the Royal Warrant was issued creating the Efficiency Medal in two distinct form for the UK with the scrolls, Militia and Territorial also allowing for scrolls bearing the names of countries, dominions and protectorates throughout the Empire and latterly the Commonwealth

 

This Royal Warrant has been amended several times since then to include awards to officers who received emergency commissions during WW2, extending the award to the woman of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, changing the scrolls as the Territorial Army and Supplementary Reserve were reorganised into the Territorial & Army Volunteer Reserve in 1969 and then back to the Territorial Army in 1982 until, in 2000, the Efficiency Medal was replaced in the UK by the Volunteer Reserve Service Medal. 

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The Militia scroll was for members of the Supplementary Reserve, men with various skills from their professional lives that were immediately transferable to the Army in times of war or emergency, this award continued until 1952 when the Supplementary Reserve was replaced by the Army Emergency Reserve creating an Efficiency medal with a scroll bearing the same name and a new ribbon, this continued to be awarded until the creation of the T. & A.V.R.

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This evolution of the Efficiency Medal is illustrated in the Genealogy of The Efficiency Medal Page

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The first awards of the Efficiency Medal were announced in Army Order 36 of 1931 and listed 7 awards of the Efficiency Medal (Territorial), the first award of the Efficiency Medal (Militia) was announced in Army Order 32 of 1932, this was to 724181 WO1 C.G.R. Sewell Royal Signals, this is crossed out on AO marked "L.14 ERROS." Sewell does eventually receives his EM(M) in AO45 of 1950 overturning the cancelation in AO 32-1932 when he also received 3 Clasps, this made the actual first award being in AO 82 of 1932 to 4439250 Sjt. J. H. Laycock Royal Engineers.

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All these medals are an oval medal 32mm wide and 39mm high with the reigning Monarchs Effigy depicted on the obverse and "FOR EFFICIENT SERVICE" across three lines on the reverse except the South African medal that has a bilingual reverse across six lines, see below.

 

The medal is suspended by two laurel leaves surmounted by a scroll that is worded dependant on the branch of the reserve service that the recipient had served in the UK or the Country, Dominion or Protectorate of the reserve forces served in.