The Volunteer Reserves Service Medal (VRSM) is a medal which may be awarded to members of the Volunteer Reserves of all branches of the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

- the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

, the

Royal Marines Reserve The Royal Marines Reserve (RMR) is the volunteer reserve force used to augment the regular Royal Marines. The RMR consists of some 750 trained ranks distributed among the four units within the UK. About 10 percent of the force are working with t ...

, the

Army Reserve A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve ...

and the

Royal Auxiliary Air Force The Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF), formerly the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF), together with the Air Force Reserve, is a component of His Majesty's Reserve Air Forces (Reserve Forces Act 1996, Part 1, Para 1,(2),(c)). It provides a primary rein ...

. It replaced the separate decorations and medals awarded respectively to officers and other ranks in each of the services - the

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 ...

Reserve Decoration The Decoration for Officers of the Royal Naval Reserve, commonly known as the Reserve Decoration (RD) was a medal awarded to officers with at least fifteen years service in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) of the United Kingdom. The medal was instit ...

and

Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal The Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal was the Long Service Medal of the reserve forces of the Royal Navy. The medal was presented for 15 or 12 years of service by Petty Officers and ratings of the Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Naval Volunt ...

, the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Territorial Decoration __NOTOC__ The Territorial Decoration (TD) was a military medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army. This award superseded the Volunteer Officer's Decoration when the Te ...

and

Efficiency Medal The Efficiency Medal was instituted in 1930 for award to part-time warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men after twelve years of efficient service on the active list of the Militia or the Territorial Army of the United Kingdom, or ...

, and the

Royal Air Force 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 ...

Air Efficiency Award The Air Efficiency Award, post-nominal letters AE for officers, was instituted in 1942. It could be awarded after ten years of meritorious service to officers, airmen and airwomen in the Auxiliary and Volunteer Air Forces of the United Kingdom ...

- from 1 April 1999.

Description

The medal is a

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

oval, 38mm high and 32mm wide. 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 ...

depicts an image of the monarch. The reverse has the words, in five lines, ''FOR SERVICE IN THE VOLUNTEER RESERVES'', above a sprig of oak leaves and acorns. The medal is suspended from a ribbon that represents each of the services with narrow stripes of dark blue, scarlet and light blue in the centre (for the Navy, Army and Air Force, respectively) separated by a thin strip of yellow from dark green bands (representing the Reserves) at each edge. Members of the

Honourable Artillery Company The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the w ...

receive the same medal but with their own ribbon.

Criteria

The VRSM is awarded after 10 years' qualifying service in the Volunteer Reserves, although service in the Regular forces before joining the Reserves may count towards the qualifying period. However, a maximum of five years’ Regular service can be counted and this service is counted as half qualifying time. A clasp is awarded for each additional 5 years' service.

"VR" post-nominal letters

It was announced on 26 March 2015 by the

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 ...

, that Volunteer Reservists may use the

post-nominal letters Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, ...

"VR" after 10 years' service, back-dated to 1999. As the post-nominal recognition is available after a straight 10 years' service, reservists may find themselves entitled to use "VR" before the qualifying period and eligibility criteria for the VRSM have been achieved. The VRSM and the post-nominals VR are therefore not directly connected. The postnominals "VR" should follow after the post-nominal letters denoting the grant of any state Honour or decoration, or educational or professional qualification.JSP 761 Pt 1 (V5.0 Oct 16): Ministry of Defence. Chapter 5, Paragraph 17

References

External links

{{Efficiency and long service decorations and medals Military awards and decorations of the United Kingdom Long and Meritorious Service Medals of Britain and the Commonwealth

Description

Criteria

"VR" post-nominal letters

See also

References

External links