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A medal awarded for service in a named conflict or theatre.
Also known as: Service medal, War medal, Grandfather's war medal
A medal marking presence and service rather than a particular act. The commonest kind of medal by a wide margin, which makes it the one most often found in a drawer — and its clasps and ribbon are what turn it from a general record into a specific one.
A medal awarded for service in a designated campaign, operation or theatre during a qualifying period, on the basis of presence and qualifying service rather than of a specific act.
Contexts: History
By far the most numerous class of medal, and consequently the kind most often inherited and brought for identification.
Frequently named around the rim with the recipient's service number, rank, name and unit, which makes British campaign medals unusually traceable — the naming can often be matched against surviving medal rolls.
United Kingdom
Clasps on the ribbon name the specific actions or theatres within the campaign, so the medal says a person served and the clasps say where.
A circular medal, usually in silver or bronze, hanging from a striped ribbon, often with lettering around the rim and one or more named bars on the ribbon.
A campaign medal records presence and a gallantry decoration records an act; both are worn together and look similar at a glance.
Clasps on a campaign medal name the specific actions served in.