WW1 GVR AUSTRALIAN BRITISH MILITARY CROSS MEDAL REPLICA ANZAC M.C. GALLANTRY

Description

Offered is a replica Australian/British King George V era (1911-1936) Military Cross with ribbon. This is a well made die cast replica of an original issue medal. Originally awarded to Officer’s & Senior Non Commissioned Officer’s for specific acts of battlefield leadership and gallantry. This replica medal measures 44mm wide and comes with the correct Toye & Kenning U.K. made 15cm long ribbon. Perfect for displaying or adding to your replica medal bar.

Obverse

Ornamental silver cross with straight arms terminating in broad finials, suspended from a plain suspension bar. Obverse decorated with imperial crowns, with the Royal Cypher in centre.

Reverse

Reverse is plain. From 1938 until 1957 the year of award was engraved on lower limb of cross, and since 1984 it has been awarded named to the recipient.

Ribbon

The ribbon width is 32 mm and consists of three equal vertical moire stripes of white, purple, and white.

Eligibility

The award was created on 28 December 1914 for commissioned officers of the substantive rank of Captain or below and for Warrant Officers. Awards are announced in the London Gazette, apart from most honorary awards to foreigners serving with allied forces.

From August 1916, recipients of the Cross were entitled to use the post-nominal letters MC, and bars could be awarded for further acts of gallantry meriting the award, with a silver rosette worn on the ribbon when worn alone to denote the award of each bar. From September 1916, members of the Royal Naval Division, who served alongside the army on the Western Front, were made eligible for military decorations, including the Military Cross, for the war’s duration. Naval officers serving with the division received 140 MCs and eight second award bars. In June 1917, eligibility was extended to temporary majors, not above the substantive rank of captain. Substantive majors were made eligible in 1953. In 1931, the award was extended to equivalent ranks in the Royal Air Force for actions on the ground. After the Second World War, most Commonwealth countries created their own honours system and no longer recommended British awards.

The last Military Cross awards for the Canadian Army were for Korea. The last four Australian Army Military Cross awards were promulgated in the London Gazette on 1 September 1972 for Vietnam as was the last New Zealand Army Military Cross award promulgated on 25 September 1970. Canada, Australia and New Zealand have now created their own gallantry awards under their own honours systems. Since the 1993 review of the honours system, as part of the drive to remove distinctions of rank in awards for bravery, the Military Medal, formerly the third-level decoration for other ranks, has been discontinued. The MC now serves as the third-level award for all ranks of the British Armed Forces for gallantry on land, not to the standard required to receive the Victoria Cross or the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.