The General Service Medal 2008 (GSM 08), was introduced in 2015 for award to

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

personnel to recognise specified operations since January 2008, not qualifying for another campaign medal. Unlike its predecessor, the

General Service Medal (1962) __NOTOC__ The General Service Medal (1962 GSM, also sometimes referred to as the Campaign Service Medal), is a campaign medal of the United Kingdom introduced in 1962 to replace both the General Service Medal (1918), as awarded to the Army and R ...

, operations will be denoted by clasps which indicate the geographic area of operations and not a specific operation. The first awards of the medal were made by

Secretary of State for Defence The secretary of state for defence, also referred to as the defence secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Ministry of Defence. The incumbent is a membe ...

Michael Fallon Sir Michael Cathel Fallon (born 14 May 1952) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 2014 to 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sevenoaks from 1997 to 2019, h ...

at a ceremony on 12 June 2016.

Appearance

The GSM 08 is a circular silver medal, in diameter.
The

obverse Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''o ...

features the

Ian Rank-Broadley Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS (born 1952) is a British sculptor who has produced many acclaimed works, among which are several designs for British coinage and the memorial statue of Princess Diana at Kensington Palace in London unveiled on her 60th ...

effigy of

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

, with the inscription ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FID DEF.
The reverse bears a design featuring a figure of

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...

holding a trident standing ahead of a lion, symbolising Britain with, below, the inscription FOR CAMPAIGN SERVICE, with the whole encircled by an oak leaf wreath.
The suspension bar is the same design as those of the GSM 1918–62 and GSM 1962, as are the colours of the wide ribbon, which is dark green with a purple stripe towards each edge.

Clasps

The clasps for the medal are named based on the geographic region of operations and not for specific named operations. The clasps and their qualifying periods of service are as follows: ;Southern Asia *Operation VERDITER (LEEWAY) (Pakistan), 1 January 2008–6 May 2015 EOD Short Term Training Team ;Arabian Peninsula *Operation QUANTAM, 1 January 2009–21 May 2012 *Operation ICENI, 1 June 2012–2 December 2013 ;Northern Africa *Operation DEFERENCE (Libya), 21 February–22 March 2011 *Operation VOCATE (Libya), 11 November 2011–present ;Western Africa *

Operation NEWCOMBE Operation Newcombe was the code name for two separate and concurrent British non-combat military operations in Mali. One operation involved logistical and airlift support for the French-led Operation Barkhane (previously Operation Serval), whil ...

(Mali), 13 January–22 May 2013 *Operation NEWCOMBE (Mali), 28 February 2018–present ;Eastern Africa *Operation TANGHAM (Somalia) including: **Headquarters Op TANGHAM (01-Nov-13 to present) **Somali National Army (SNA) Training and Advisory Team (STAT); formerly included in Op BACKWELL (24-Apr-12 to present). **African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Mission Support Team (MST); formerly included in Op BACKWELL (24-Apr-12 to present). **United Nations Support Team (UNST); formerly Op CATAN (03-Mar-16 to present). **Comprehensive Approach to Security (CAS) Strand 2A; formerly Op PRESIDIUM. **Government Provided Personnel to UN; formerly Op PRAISER (16-Dec-14 to present). **European Union Training Mission-Somalia (EUTM-S); formally Op MODEST (24-Jan-13 to 01-Feb-20). ;Gulf of Aden *Task Force 50, October–November 2016 Service in a second or subsequent qualifying operation is reflected by an additional clasp added to the existing GSM medal, not by a second medal. It is expected that further operations and clasps will be added to the GSM as time progresses.

Notes

References

{{British campaign medals British campaign medals