Orders and Medals of the United Kingdom

Orders and decorations of the United Kingdom are the government orders of merit previously or presently given in the United Kingdom by the monarch . Outside of this system is the award of a knighthood without belonging to an order of knights (" Knight Bachelor ").

Order of knights

Supervision of the state military orders (English: orders ) leading Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood in London , on the death of the religious member also to the insignia must be returned. Which these are depends on the respective award and is different depending on the statute. As an umbrella term for this type of medal, the term " orders of chivalry " is used in the United Kingdom . For those orders, the highest classes of which entail the simultaneous award of knighthood (as sir or lady ), the designation " orders of knighthood " is common.

Order with knighthood

currently awarded:

no longer awarded:

Order without knighthood

currently awarded:

no longer awarded:

Order of Burma

Decorations ( decorations )

Badges of honor can take the form of a cross of merit or medals .

Surname	Post-nominal	Foundation year	Classes	annotation
Victoria Cross	VC	1856	-
George Cross	GC	1940	-
Conspicuous Gallantry Cross	CGC	1993	-
Royal Red Cross 1st class	RRC	1883	2
George Medal	GM	1940	-	The obverse of the medal always shows the portrait of the ruling monarch
Distinguished Service Cross	DSC	1901	-	Obverse of the cross always shows the initials of the ruling monarch
Military Cross	MC	1914	-	Obverse of the cross always shows the initials of the ruling monarch
Distinguished Flying Cross	DFC	1918	-
Sea Gallantry Medal	SGM	1854	-
Queen's Gallantry Medal	QGM	1974	-
Air Force Cross	AFC	1918	-
Order of British India	OBI	1837	2	has not been awarded since 1947
Kaiser-i-Hind	KiH	1900	3	has not been awarded since 1947
Crimea War Medal	-	1856	-	Is no longer awarded. Bars for: Alma Inkerman Azoff Balaklava Sebastopol
Baltic Medal	-	1856	-	is no longer awarded
British War Medal	-	1918	-	is no longer awarded
Mentioned in despatches	-		-

Overview of the ranking ( precedence )

The system of precedence of the individual medals and decorations is very detailed and complex, so that only the main features are explained here:

Victoria Cross and George Cross are the only decorations in the ranking before the Knights, in which case the former Hoforden ( Order of the Garter , Order of the Thistle , the Order of Saint Patrick ) are at vorderster place. This is followed by the members of the Order of Merit .

Then there are the orders of knight, divided into several levels, according to the date of their foundation: Order of the Bath - Order of St. Michael and St. George - Royal Victorian Order - Order of the British Empire . The members of the higher level of a lower order always enjoy priority over members of lower levels of a higher order (in concrete terms, this means that e.g. a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire over a Companion of the Order of the Bath stands). In this scheme, the Companions of Honor are arranged immediately after the grand crosses of the multi-level knightly orders, members of the Distinguished Service Order according to the commanders of these knightly orders.

Below the knightly orders follow the decorations, whereby the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (which can be awarded to all British soldiers) takes precedence over those awards that have been assigned to a military unit ( Distinguished Service Cross for members of the Navy, Military Cross for members of the Army and Distinguished Flying Cross for members of the Air Force).