The Volunteer Officers’ Decoration

• Time Period: Pre-WW1
• Year of Institution: 1892
• Country: Great Britain

The Volunteer Officers’ Decoration (or VD) is a British medal instituted in 1892 as an award for long and meritorious service by officers of the United Kingdom’s Volunteer Force.

The award was instituted by Queen Victoria’s Royal Warrant on 25 July 1892. The decoration could be awarded to efficient and thoroughly capable officers of proven capacity for long and meritorious service in the part-time Volunteer Force of the United Kingdom.

The decoration was discontinued in the United Kingdom when it was superseded by the Territorial Decoration in 1908, but it continued to be awarded throughout the British Empire, defined as being India, the Dominion of Canada, the Crown Colonies and the Crown Dependencies.

Volunteer Officers’ Decoration Design

The medal is oval skeletal and is struck in silver, with parts of the obverse in silver-gilt. It measures 43 millimeters (1.69 inches) high and 35.5 millimeters (1.4 inches) wide with a ring suspender formed of silver wire.

The obverse shows an oak leaf wreath in silver, tied with gold, with the Royal Cypher below the Royal Crown, both in gold, in the center. The reverse is plain with the hallmarks impressed at the bottom.

The ribbon is dark green and 1 ¹⁄₂ inches (38 millimeters) in width and is suspended from a silver bar-brooch decorated with an oak leaf pattern. The decoration was awarded unnamed but was frequently unofficially engraved in various styles.